Lions stay true to their draft strategy as they become NFL’s hunted

Carmen Vitali

NFC North Reporter

The Detroit Lions have gone from the NFL’s hunters to the NFL’s hunted.

That was apparent in what looked like a departure from their recent draft strategy this year.

General manager Brad Holmes traded up four times in the 2024 NFL Draft to fill the Lions’ last remaining needs on the roster.

It was easier when Detroit had so many.

If you recall, last year the Lions took a running back at No. 12 overall with their first pick after trading down. They followed that up with taking an inside linebacker at No. 18 with their second first-round pick. Traditionally, neither of those positions hold first-round value very often. But it was hard to argue when those were positions Detroit was lacking — two holes among a litany of others across the Lions’ roster last year. In all, Holmes made four trades in 2023, too. But three of those four were trades down.

This year, after falling one half short of the Super Bowl, those holes were fewer and much more specific.

Holmes got more aggressive as a result.

Detroit’s secondary had been by far and away its biggest need. They addressed it by trading for veteran cornerback Carlton Davis from the Buccaneers and grabbed corner Amik Robertson in free agency earlier this offseason, only to have to release corner Cam Sutton following a domestic violence arrest. Then came the draft. It was no surprise that the Lions ended up with a corner, of course. What was a surprise is that they ended up with one of the best corners in the draft in Alabama’s Terrion Arnold, someone who was thought to be gone by the time Detroit selected at No. 29.

Only, the Lions didn’t select at No. 29. To ensure they got Arnold, Holmes executed his first trade-up of the night, going up five spots and forfeiting their No. 73 pick in the process, to get their guy.

Detroit also traded up again in the fourth round, costing them a 2025 third-round pick, for offensive tackle Giovanni Manu. If that name doesn’t sound familiar, you aren’t alone. Manu wasn’t at the NFL Combine. He’s not even American.

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Manu is the first player to ever be drafted out of the University of British Columbia. The Tongan native moved to Canada when he was 11. But he took up American football, and Holmes fell in love with Manu’s upside once he got a hold of his tape. The Lions even met with him on a pre-draft visit on a Sunday, usually a day off for NFL front offices in the offseason.

“Him and (Lions RB Sione) Vaki, those are the guys that going to bed last night, going to bed I was like, ‘We’re not trading into — we’re not trading into the fourth, we’re just going to sit back and wait,'” said Holmes on night three of the draft. “But when I woke up, that’s when I was like, ‘Man, it’s those two guys that if they don’t make it, those are going to be some gut punches.’ So, when I finally got to the facility and I went to (Lions head coach) Dan (Campbell) and I said, ‘Dan, dude, these two guys.’ And I told him the two guys and he was like, ‘Those are the same two guys that I was thinking about this morning.’ And I was like, ‘Let’s go get them. Let’s not mess around.’

“And again, you always get the answers to the test after you pick them, and if we would’ve waited around, they weren’t going to make it. I think the only pick we don’t have is a third-round pick. Is that right? Would that be shorthanded if you’re missing one third-round pick? So, I feel really good about it.”

And though it cost the Lions future capital, and seemed more aggressive than years past, when you hear it from his mouth, Holmes really didn’t switch up strategies after all. Holmes and Campbell still took their guys — good players they feel embody what it means to be ‘All Grit’ as the Lions’ team slogan suggests.

It’s just that their process is a little different than most. Holmes doesn’t use rounds as benchmarks for grading and evaluating players. They don’t classify prospects as a “first rounder” or “second rounder” — instead, they rank them vertically by position and the only “grade” they assign them is starter or backup.

“Sometimes I might say, ‘We’ve got a second-round grade,’ because that’s kind of what makes sense, but the reason we kind of stay away from the whole ‘rounds’ thing is that when they come on your roster, they’re either a starter, they’re either a backup,” Holmes said. “They’re not a ‘round’ anymore. It’s not a fourth-round receiver, it’s not a sixth-round safety. He’s either a backup or he’s a high-end backup — that’s what it is. It’s vertically by position from the top to the bottom.”

Getting a high-end backup or potential starter in the fourth round, as is the case with Manu, ends up working out to be good value — even with the extra third thrown in there. Getting Vaki, a hybrid safety/running back who is an excellent special teams player out of Utah as Holmes mentioned above, in the fourth round is also good value considering he can play all three phases of the game. Defensive tackle Mekhi Wingo out of LSU, who was Holmes’ last trade up of the draft, could very well be a rotational player and he was a sixth-round pick.

Once you understand the Lions’ evaluation process, all of a sudden their picks and moves made to get those picks, start to make more sense.

So while it looks as if Holmes was a bit more aggressive, the Lions’ strategy still hasn’t wavered.

And why would it? It’s seemingly worked out pretty well, so far.

Now we’ll see if it withstands the proverbial target on the Lions’ backs.

Carmen Vitali covers the NFC North for FOX Sports. Carmen had previous stops with The Draft Network and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. She spent six seasons with the Bucs, including 2020, which added the title of Super Bowl Champion (and boat-parade participant) to her résumé. You can follow Carmen on Twitter at @CarmieV.