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Eric Woodyard, ESPN
ALLEN PARK, Mich. — Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes said the team’s run to the NFC Championship Game was no fluke and the aim now is to make winning seasons like that the norm.
Prior to this season, the organization hadn’t experienced two playoff victories in a single postseason since 1957.
“I don’t want anybody to think that this was a one-shot, Cinderella, magical journey that just happened,” Holmes said at his end-of-season news conference Monday. “No, it’s real. This is exactly what was supposed to happen and I understand that based on history, from what’s happened in the past. I understand if you have a season like this, it’s easy to feel like this was kind of a one-shot, magical, lucky, cute story. Which I’m tired of hearing. It was none of that.
“It’s easy to think that, but no, every move that me and [head coach Dan Campbell] make, it has been made to sustain what we are building. Every single move. And I’ll say every single move we make and every single move we do not make is to sustain what we have been building. So, it’s real. Look, it’s all to normalize what we’re doing. This is to normalize it.”
In his three years in Detroit, Holmes has drafted five Pro Bowlers (Penei Sewell, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Aidan Hutchinson, Jahmyr Gibbs and Sam LaPorta). Both St. Brown and Sewell also received Associated Press First Team All-Pro honors for 2023 while Holmes was named the 2023 NFL Executive of the Year by the Pro Football Writers Association. Gibbs and LaPorta are both up for NFL Rookie of the Year honors as well, although those 2023 draft picks were both criticized by numerous draft experts as possibly being selected too high.
“I’m not up here to give ‘I-told-you-sos,’ but I would say I told you so was when we selected the player. As long as Dan [Campbell] and I are convicted in selecting these players, you sleep like a baby,” Holmes said. “And we slept like a baby after we selected those players, and all the criticism that came and transpired the day after the draft, or the week after the draft, you can’t be a prisoner of the moment. You can’t let that affect you. You’ve just kind of got to go through the post-draft storm and kind of just weather through it.”
However, despite winning 12 games — which matched the most single-season wins in team history — Holmes and the players are not satisfied with the individual recognition that is rolling in. The goal is to win their first Super Bowl, especially with both offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn returning after receiving serious head-coaching interest.
“I’m excited, super excited. I know the whole squad is,” St. Brown told ESPN during the Pro Bowl Games. “I mean we can’t wait. We’ve got some unfinished business.”
Sustained success is the main goal in Detroit, according to Holmes. As the Lions look to address their team needs this offseason, which includes helps in the secondary and on the defensive line, Holmes said it’ll continue to be a strategic process where they’ll target the same type of gritty players to fit their system.
The Lions hold the 29th overall pick in the upcoming NFL draft, which will also mark the first time that Detroit has hosted the three-day event. Holmes said every draft pick and free agent signing this offseason will be made with an eye toward building a winning culture in Detroit.
“Over the next few months, every move that we make is to win in December. It’s not to win March, April and May, which it’s easy to do. If that’s your aim, you can win March, April and May, but no, everything is intentional,” Holmes said. “It may look strange, it may look like ‘well why did they do this?’ but trust me, it is to win in December. So, that’s why we made the moves that we have made.
“Look, the reality is this, everyone can’t play here. Everyone can’t play for the Detroit Lions, and that’s just the reality, and that’s just the standard that has been set.”