Brad Holmes punches back at pundits after 'lazy narrative' on Goff
The Detroit Lions hired Brad Holmes to be their new general manager on January 14th, 2021. By January 30th, he was trading away the teams franchise quarterback to the team he just left to take the Lions job. Trading Matthew Stafford after 12 years was a big deal. Who was going to replace this guy? […]
The Detroit Lions hired Brad Holmes to be their new general manager on January 14th, 2021. By January 30th, he was trading away the teams franchise quarterback to the team he just left to take the Lions job.
Trading Matthew Stafford after 12 years was a big deal. Who was going to replace this guy? It couldn't possibly be the guy they got back in exchange right? Jared Goff isn't a legitimate starting NFL quarterback. he's a bridge guy at best.
That was the narrative for while. It was expected that Holmes would just draft a quarterback and the team would move on from Goff as soon as they found a better guy and it was fiscally responsible to do so. People wanted Justin Fields in 2021, or Malik Willis in 2022. People even wanted Anthony Richardson this year. Anyone but Goff. Those are examples. Obviously it's not what everyone wanted.
As we stand here today, Jared Goff is currently the highest graded quarterback in the NFL per Pro Football Focus. He's playing out of his mind and the Lions look like a team that could be playing deep into January and maybe even, gulp, February.
Holmes talked with Ian Rapoport and and Tom Pelissero on the NFL Insiders podcast on Wednesday morning and for the first time ever, he fired back at that whole bridge quarterback idea.
Very, very proud of Jared. Again, just like like you said, I never thought of him is just a bridge or a stop gap or whatever." Holmes said. "Just because I knew when I was around all the success he had, you know, early in his career and in LA, and you know but it seems like when he got here when the trade was made, that all that success was forgotten about. And it was it was just this narrative that he was just a bridge and I always thought that was kind of a lazy narrative and a big suffrage or recency bias, just because of I guess, the narrative of how the trade went down, and all of that.
Then in 2011, he was in a very difficult situation, you know, we didn't have a lot of talent around him. We didn't have much money to spend in free agency. We had a lot of injuries and we had to make a midseason OC change. I mean, it was a lot so you know, so then everybody kind of just kind of held on to the narrative from the trade and then we get to go into a 21. And then it's like, boy, he can't be the quarterback. But no, we just kept our belief in him. I think Dan and Ben and Brunell have done an outstanding job with giving him ownership and his confidence is sky high. He's playing at a high level right now. Obviously, we've added stuff around him but he's in a really good place now. And so hopefully he can keep keep this going. But even if he has some lows, you know, I'm not worried about Jared because one of the more underrated components of him that I think is his mental toughness. He shown that he's displayed that he's doing a great job for us."
Holmes is right. That was a lazy narrative and one that now looks foolish. Goff has turned into an elite quarterback and the Lions can go anywhere with him at the helm. That's why he will likely get a very big extension this offseason.
Holmes was asked about that buy the way, and he shook off the answer as you would expect any GM in the NFL to do.
Detroit Lions mailbag: Where do the Lions need help at the trade deadline?
Welcome to out Week 6 Detroit Lions mailbag. One quarter of the season is over and the Lions are 4-1. They've got an interesting lineup of game ahead of them with the Buccaneers, Ravens and Raiders. Then there's the trade deadline. So there's a lot that's that could go down soon. Let's jump into our […]
