Detroit Lions Free Agency Grade: Did Brad Holmes Do Enough in 2026?
The Lions didn't make a splash in free agency—but maybe that's the point. While fans pushed for big-name stars, Brad Holmes stuck to his blueprint. So did Detroit quietly get better, or miss a golden opportunity?
Video Transcript
What's going on, Lions Nation?
Free agency is not coming to an end, but it has definitely been, I think, a little over a week, close to nine days of free agency so far, and the Lions have been relatively active.
They didn't just sit there and make a couple moves and re-sign a few players.
They actually made a lot of moves.
Now, they weren't big splash signings.
They weren't, you know, trading too first for Max Crosby or going out and getting Trey Hendrickson or, you know, signing Tyler Linderbaum.
They were just a bunch of quality, solid depth moves.
And it leads me to the question, has Brad Holmes done enough in this free agency?
And I believe, yes, you know, it's, it's nothing flashy.
It's nothing crazy.
But what he didn't do is just re-sign the guys we had, sit on his hands, make a couple moves, and that was it.
He went out and got eight new players.
That is a lot of guys brought into the Lions.
I think Brad Holmes is one of the best talent evaluators out there.
Yes, he's hit mostly during the NFL Draft, and he's had a few bad free agent signings and a couple bad trades here and there.
But overall, the guy has an eye for talent, and I fully trust him on all these eight guys we brought in.
I think each one of them have a specific role, have a reason why they were brought in.
Wonnum and Christian Eisen are two great examples.
Both of those guys can play multiple positions.
Both of those guys are, I don't want to say like veterans, but experienced pros that can give you quality starts as opposed to bringing up a practice squad guy, go signing a guy off a different practice squad when a few players get injured, because that has been the case for the Detroit Lions over the last three years.
We've had guys go down, and we've needed bodies, so we've turned to the practice squad to get those bodies.
And ultimately, it has not really worked out.
As you can see, the last three seasons has slowly declined.
So Brad Holmes is bolstering up the depth chart.
He's filling the holes.
We got, you know, we filled just little holes, the tight end three of Tyler Conklin, backup running back Isaiah Pacheco, backup quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.
We added some, some safety depth.
We added some cornerback depth.
We added, offensive tackles.
We added the big one, Cade Mays.
So overall, I think Brad Holmes has done enough.
Now, would I have hated if he went out and signed a big-name player?
Absolutely not.
I would have loved it.
But I'm certainly not upset at what he has done so far, and I think we're going to be making moves during the NFL Draft.
I believe that will be the next kind of adjustment situation where the Lions will actually be active again.
I don't really expect a lot of guys, although I did just say this the other day.
And what the Lions go out and do, they signed a defensive end outside linebacker, DJ Wonnum.
So we'll see what the Lions do.
But overall, I think Brad Holmes has done a solid job.
