Brad Holmes entered his role as Detroit Lions general manager in 2021 in a tough position, as would be expected at the start of what was sure to be a challenging rebuild from the ashes of the "Quinntricia" era.
Holmes had an added challenge-a veteran quarterback who understandably wanted no part of yet another rebuild in Detroit. Matthew Stafford was allowed to pick his destination. It happened to be the Los Angeles Rams, where Holmes had worked for years prior to coming to Detroit.
After two years of not doing much in free agency, understandably considering where the Lions were, Holmes turned up the aggressiveness a little bit in 2023, signing Cameron Sutton, David Montgomery, Emmanuel Moseley and C.J. Gardner-Johnson, while bringing back Graham Glasgow and Jalen Reeves-Maybin.
Holmes has said this offseason that, to paraphrase, his core philosophy is to fill needs in free agency and acquire talent in the draft. We'll see what that means for free agency this year, but there are some specific needs to fill rather than a laundry list.
Holmes has not made many mistakes so far in his tenure as Lions' general manager, as clearly evidenced by the team going from 3-13-1 in Year 1 to the NFC title game in Year 3. But these free agent signings were pretty bad.
3 worst Lions' free agent signings under general manager Brad Holmes
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