The Detroit Lions officially introduced Brad Holmes as the team’s new general manager on Tuesday with a press conference that featured Holmes, owner Sheila Ford Hamp and team president Rod Wood all speaking.
I’ve watched the whole proceeding twice now and a few things stood out to me. Here’s what caught my eye in the questions, statements and answers.
Collaboration is the key buzzword
Both Ford Hamp and Wood used the word “collaboration” in their introductory statements and mentioned it again when speaking of what stood out about Holmes. His ability to sell himself as a leader of a collaborative effort rather than the dominating, elevated presence that preceded him.
It harkens back to Holmes’ interviews in the past, where he’s stressed the importance of listening to all voices and being the head of a group process. He’s there to lead a group to a decision, not to tell a group what decision they will make. That’s a key difference from how some other front offices work and it creates a more empowered and positive work environment for the scouts, the assistants, even the interns. That will be very new for the Lions’ holdovers.
Holmes himself advanced the “me not we” tagline when talking about how the Rams, his old organization, found sustained success. Expect to hear that type of talk a lot around the Lions from now on.
Wood deliberately removed himself from the football process
The team president made it a point to break down the power structure of the football side of the organization. For fans who continue to worry that Wood is making decisions on personnel, he deliberately left his own name out of the process in his answer when asked who will have the final say on everything player-related,
“Brad and our new head coach will be collaborating on the 53-man roster. They’re each going to have input. As we’ve talked about – we want a culture where everyone’s working together, and I think that will work fine once we have our new head coach in place. Mike (Disner) will be doing all the things he has been doing, just picking up some of the in-house football administration stuff so Brad can focus on finding players.”
Wood added that he and Ford Hamp oversee the group, but it’s in a CEO and owner role, not a decision-making role.
Mike Disner’s star is shining
Disner is the team’s VP of football administration, a loosely defined role. He primarily handled the salary cap under the old regime, but his role is clearly expanding with Holmes coming on board. Wood and Ford Hamp both made it clear that Disner was integrally involved in the interview process.
Intangibles have newfound importance for players
It’s difficult to define precisely what Holmes was talking about when he brought up intangibles with players. He stated,
“I’ll start with what I was saying earlier about how important the intangibles aspect is, and we used to always talk about, let’s invest in reliability and let’s invest in reliable players. And obviously, we’re not overlooking talent, a baseline of talent is very necessary. It is the NFL, but I truly believe that the separator of success is those players that do have those high intangible traits. So, that’s a motto that was used with the Rams that obviously bode (well) for a lot of draft success and that same approach will definitely be carried over for the Lions.”
My interpretation: a love of playing football, the passion for winning, the hatred of losing, the joy of being part of a team process are going to take on a newfound importance in the scouting process and free agency. Lions Wire’s Erik Schlitt’s old “QIB” system of physical benchmarks needed at positions that was consistent across the Bob Quinn era is in the smoldering dumpster than Quinn left behind. And that’s a very positive development.
Holmes idolized the right man in Ozzie Newsome
Newsome was the GM who constructed the Baltimore Ravens into a two-time Super Bowl champion and perennial playoff contender in his two decades running that franchise. Holmes proudly brought up the picture of Newsome holding a Super Bowl trophy as inspirational to him as a young black man making his way in the NFL front office.
Holmes couldn’t have picked a better role model. Newsome is rightly revered for his ability to find talented players with a passion for football and the ability to collectively make one another better. His teams changed stylistically with Xs and Os a few times, adapting to the talent on hand, but they always had smart, tough, mentally strong players and coaches as a constant. That can work in Detroit.
He’s ‘one of us’
NFL draft nerds everywhere had to rejoice when Holmes admitted he skipped school to watch the 1993 NFL draft. It shows how long the fire has burned in him to get where he is today, the proud new GM of the Detroit Lions.