Brad Holmes concisely conveys his expectations for the Lions this year

At halftime of last season's NFC Championship Game, the Detroit Lions led the San Francisco 49ers 24-7 and flights to Las Vegas for Super Bowl LVIII were probably being booked. But it was not to be, as the Lions made some mistakes and had some bad fortune on their way to a 34-31 loss.

So expectations are naturally high for the Lions this year. They are regarded as one the top Super Bowl contenders, with one of the best rosters in the NFL and the biggest weakness last season (cornerback) addressed aggressively this offseason.

On Thursday, general manager Brad Holmes was asked what makes him confident the roster he has assembled can get to the Super Bowl and win it.

"I just think, going back to day one, that we never wavered in our process in terms of roster building. We've kept our approach and our process very consistent in terms of how we build it, the opportunities that we provide players, and that's what gives us confidence. We've been saying this since Day 1, we want to get better every single year. And we've done that, and we plan to continue to do that."

The roster building process Holmes is leading, rooted in the draft, is clearly working. So there's no sense in changing anything, and the Lions have a model other teams would like to replicate but few truly can.

Brad Holmes concisely lays out his expectations for the Lions this year

At this same point a year ago, his post-training camp press conference, with the hype that surrounded the Lions then, Holmes was fairly low-key with his public expectations for the 2023 season. He stopped at being very confidence the team could win a division title for the first time since 1993 (which the Lions of course did), with no mention of championship aspirations.

At the end of his press conference on Thursday, Homes was asked what his expectations are for the Lions this season. After a fairly unnecessary ask for clarification, maybe for unintentional dramatic purposes, he had a perfectly concise response.

"For this season? Win the Super Bowl," Holmes said.

The expectations shouldn't be anything other than to win the Super Bowl for the Lions this year. But Holmes has, however boldly, put those exact words on it.