As the Detroit Lions have become a contender, one thing is abundantly clear. General manager Brad Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell are fully aligned, with the same ideas about the type of players they want and the culture they want to have (and have built).
A recent survey from The Athletic, ranking the NFL's best front offices, was filled with comments from people around the league noting just that.
"Holmes and Campbell see things through the same lens, which has helped the GM acquire the types of players who will fare well for Campbell. They’ve built a roster that appears tough, selfless and talented". a general manager said.
"Detroit has done a great job of figuring out their style and getting guys who fit that in the draft and free agency", an NFC executive said.
"Detroit has done a nice job building it in their own image, which is unique to everybody else,” an executive said.
Brad Holmes gets real about relationship with Dan Campbell
Ahead of Monday night's game against the Seattle Seahawks, Holmes sat down with Brad Galli iof WXYZ-TV in Detroit.
INTERVIEW: Lions GM Brad Holmes sat down with @WXYZDetroit ahead of Monday Night Football to discuss the way he's built the team into a contender.
— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) September 30, 2024
He talked with me about the Lions' draft success, his memorable postgame moments with fans, and his relationship with Dan Campbell. pic.twitter.com/XcX3Vcjprp
Among other topics, he got into how his relationship with Campbell works.
"I've always said from day one, incredibly blessed, incredibly fortunate to be in this position to work with Dan," Holmes said. "Obviously, it's been a privilege because we saw so much eye-to-eye right off the bat, but with any good relationship, it's even more trust, even better trust. Now, it's, we're anticipating each other's thoughts and even over-communicating, still doing it the right way. It's been awesome. "
"From a day-to-day standpoint, I just want to make sure that he's equipped with everything that he needs to make sure that the team is running at a high level," Holmes said....."So I just never want to let him down, and I never want to put him in a position where he feels shorthanded. It just works. Neither one of us, we don't care about credit and egos and any of that kind of stuff. All of us have seen, countless times, where that stuff can bring things down."
Public praise between Holmes and Campbell is nothing new. The synergy of the Lions' general manager and head coach feels unique around the league, with that synergy also yielding the desired results (unlike the results the synergy of their predecessors brought).