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The Detroit Lions are expected to hire Los Angeles Rams varsity scouting director Brad Holmes as the team’s new general manager, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Holmes becomes the second black GM in team history, after Martin Mayhew, who was the team’s GM from 2009 to 2015.
The Rams will become the first team to receive two third-round compensatory draft picks as part of new NFL recruiting initiatives.
Holmes first interviewed Detroit virtually on Jan.6, then in person on Wednesday. The North Carolina A&T graduate – he majored in journalism and mass communication – has spent his entire professional career with the Rams.
He started as a PR intern in 2003 before moving on to Scouting and working his way up to his role as Director of University Scouting. Now he will replace Bob Quinn, who was sacked by the Lions in November after nearly five years in office.
Among the players taken during his tenure as Rams varsity scouting director were two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald, wide receiver Cooper Kupp, goalie John Johnson III, linebacker Samson Ebukam, tight ends Tyler Higbee and Gerald Everett, running back Todd Gurley and quarterback Jared Goff.
“The norm is, first of all, that we have passionate players,” Holmes said on the team’s website in 2019. “We’re talking about being great teammates, being a connected team. let’s talk about being relentless, we want smart players, instinctive players, explosive players.
“These are the kinds of pillars we look for in Rams football players. You’re smart. You’re gut-strung. You’re explosive. These are the building blocks, the critical factors that we’re looking for.”
We just got a touching call with Brad Holmes which of course ended with Les and Brad breaking the draft … which led me to ask Les when he found out Brad had “that” … .@The Lionsfans – get caught … that’s what it is! (oh and comment at the end🤣) pic.twitter.com/AquGmgQwjJ
– KHS (araKaraHenderson) January 14, 2021
Holmes, 41, could change his vision now that he is a general manager as he has experience under five head coaches and four general managers during his time with the Rams, but Holmes has touched a lot. that Detroit was looking for. In the process.
“We believe that in some cases our situation is unique,” Lions team president Rod Wood said recently. “I won’t share them all with you, but I would say they focus on leadership, culture, teamwork, realizing each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and what we’re really looking for, that is t is an open, inclusive culture where everyone comes together as a team, and in a nutshell, communication is everything and everyone does what it takes for the Detroit Lions.
“So the people that we are looking for and the people that we get to interview, I think, have those traits.”
Rams general manager Les Snead told ESPN’s Lindsey Thiry that Holmes had a “dynamic intelligence” and respected his ability to assess football players. The team’s director of operations, Kevin Demoff, told Thiry that he is also capable of being a leader away from the machinations of football.
This is something Wood insisted on when he described what the team was looking for – someone to lead and unify the organization at all levels.
Holmes is the nephew of Luther Bradley, Detroit’s 1978 first-round pick, and the son of former Pittsburgh offensive lineman Mel Holmes.
“He has become a valued voice in our organization within our leadership team on social justice and diversity issues, helping us lead a diverse group of people,” Demoff told Thiry. “Brad is one of the most popular voices we have in our building.”
The Lions had been at the forefront of diversity issues in the NFL for the past year. They were the first team to protest the Jacob Blake shootout in August by canceling practice the day before the Milwaukee Bucks refused to play a playoff game to protest Blake’s shooting.
Lions owner Sheila Ford Hamp asked Yale classmate Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. to speak to her team practically in August. Gates Jr. is the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard and the host of the PBS show “Finding Your Roots”.
The Lions interviewed at least 12 people for the vacant position, including their three internal candidates and former general managers Rick Smith (Houston), Thomas Dimitroff (Atlanta) and Jeff Ireland (Miami).
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