Brad Holmes sure went from hero to harangued in a hurry.
It feels like it, anyway, or at least it surely feels like it to the Detroit Lions' general manager.
How much he hears his critics is hard to say, but then he's someone prone to wearing trolling sweatshirts to his draft day news conferences, so it’s a safe bet he hears a lot.
His “Positional Villain” jibe comes to mind, a phrase he wore across his chest when he met reporters during the 2024 NFL Draft. That was meant to dunk on critics of his first-round picks the previous season, when he took linebacker Jack Campbell and running back Jahmyr Gibbs in the first round.
He won that battle against the non-believers (though
not the battle of the 2024 draft, which hasn't turned out so well) and, when his team was winning regularly, never minded a bit of gloat. He hasn’t been gloating lately, though. If his defense keeps this up, he probably won’t gloat – via hoodie or otherwise – anytime soon.
It’s early, though: Two games into 2026. Maybe he’ll have a reason to screenprint another sweatshirt before the season is over. More likely he won’t, at least, again, based on his current defense.
In the meantime, the vultures are out, as Lions quarterback Jared Goff noted Wednesday, Sept. 23, after practicing at Lions’ headquarters, and it must feel strange for anyone inside the building. The Lions went from afterthought to afterburner in a heartbeat, then, after a scant two seasons, missed the playoffs again.
And if Holmes is responsible for the decline, 2025 third-round pick Isaac TeSlaa is the posterboy. (Well, he and Kerby Joseph, but that's for a different reason, of course).
TeSlaa, in his second year at wide receiver with the Lions, represents (so far) wasted picks – picks that could’ve been used to help the defense. Joseph, meanwhile, represents a lack of preparation; the All-Pro safety has been out nearly a year with a degenerative knee condition, and Holmes still doesn’t appear to have a backup plan.
That’s the view from the "Holmes Haters" club – do they have sweatshirts? – anyway, and, at the moment, it’s hard to disagree. That's something of a conundrum for anyone who remembers the franchise's three decades without a playoff win, not to mention Holmes' (considerable) hand in ending it.
Some Lions fans are frustrated precisely because Holmes did his job so well during the rebuild: He put together a team that didn’t just win – it won in ways both stylish and tough.
Then last year hit, and the Lions whiffed (albeit with a 9-8 record for their fourth straight winning season, the franchise's longest such streak since, yes, really, the early 1970s), and the refurbishing of the rebuild doesn’t look so good, two games into this season. Not on defense, at least, which brings us back to TeSlaa.
The Hudsonville product cost the Lions three third-round picks to move up and take him (though at least he brought his own jersey with him). Two of those picks went to Jacksonville for use in April's draft – picks used by the Jaguars that could’ve been used by the Lions to help the defense. Did I mention the defense stinks?
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A TeSlaa without a charge?
As arguments go, it’s a sound one. Trading those picks is a high cost for a No. 3 receiver ... who is effectively the No. 5 option for an offense already full of studs.
Three third-rounders are also low value for a blocker, which TeSlaa has become – he has two catches in two games this season. (In fairness, he is doing what is asked, and doing it well, according to his coaches). His opportunities to make plays may change eventually; at least his position coach and quarterback hope it eventually does.
And yet, to Scottie Montgomery and Jared Goff, TeSlaa’s willingness to block and say not a word about getting the ball is a sign of selflessness, and they are grateful for the team-oriented attitude.
To a chunk of the Lions’ fan base, that lack of production is a sign of incompetence on the part of Holmes, who wore another one of those personalized sweatshirts during the 2025 draft, too. This one had the letters “HWS” – short for “Height, Weight, Speed” – only with a line crossing them out.
This was Holmes' way of saying he valued prior production and tape over scouting combine measurables, an interesting point made considering TeSlaa graded out quite highly at that year's combine and produced very little in his final season at Arkansas.
TeSlaa was a gamble, and not just in the conventional way: He was also a gamble against Holmes’ own form of measurement. When the GM was asked about the pick, he doubled down, naturally.
“I'm not saying he was the best wide receiver in the draft,” Holmes said. “But favorite wide receiver in the draft? Yes.”
Maybe that’ll play out for TeSlaa, and he’ll get to prove his general manager right. Until then, though, he’ll have to carry the heavy burden of those third-round picks. It's an unfair burden, by the way; he wasn’t the one who made the deal.
Holmes was, and it has become emblematic of what looks like a Lions’ plateau.
Sliding back into the muck?
Whether this is an overreaction is too soon to say. Yet the proof is in the numbers, or rather in the drafting ... at least since 2023, and in the trades and free agent signings.
Oh, there have been solid additions. Just not enough of them. Not yet.
This could change as the 2025 and 2026 draft classes get more time; there are promising players from both. Also, right tackle Blake Miller (the first of those 2026 picks), center Cade Mays and safety Brian Branch returning to health will help.
In the interim, however, Holmes deserves the heat, and the “vultures,” as Goff called them. He whiffed on almost all of the 2024 draft, and has reached a few too many times: Giovanni Manu … Brodric Martin ... Hendon Hooker?
He didn’t swing hard enough at the trade deadline in 2024 to fix an injury-plagued defense, and he didn’t do enough this offseason to fix the secondary.
Well, it looks that way through the first two weeks, anyway.
But then, life in the NFL changes fast. A healthy offensive line will help the running game, which will help the offense, which will help the defense, and all of that might make the vision for this team clearer.
If not, Holmes will feel more heat.
He helped pull a franchise from the muck. Now he has to make sure it doesn’t slide back in.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Brad Holmes on the hot seat? No. But Lions GM should feel the heat
