Brad Holmes deserves some props for the way things went with the Lions and Hendon Hooker and Brodric Martin
He’s still the guy
On Monday, the Detroit Lions had to make two hard choices. Parting ways with a third-round pick is not easy to do. Parting ways with two third-rounders is harder. Parting ways with two third-round picks from the same draft has to be as hard as it gets. The Lions cut Hendon Hooker and Brodric Martin this week. The latter of which the Lions traded up to get.
This has caused some backlash on Lions GM Brad Holmes and has some wondering if the magic is over and he’s not the draft expert he’s usually been. That’s just a ridiculous premise if you ask me. Holmes won Executive of the Year after the 2023 NFL Draft, and the work he did in the first two rounds of that draft played a large role in that. He then won it again in 2024, and this year he had a solid draft. This is overreaction at its highest form.
The context of these picks is often overlooked. I was admittedly not a big fan of the Hooker pick when it happened, but the understanding was always that the expectation was for him to be a premium backup quarterback and never the guy who would take over for Jared Goff. Hooker’s age alone gave that away.
I think some saw Hooker as that possible Goff successor, and that’s why they’re super disappointed about the move not working out. You might say something like “Why use a third-round pick on that?” Hindsight is always 20/20. It’s easy to look back at it now and see it as bad, but Hooker wasn’t going to be on the board much longer. If the Lions were going to swing, that was the time to do it. Personally, I’ve been a big fan of the Lions going to get their guy, no matter what. It’s paid off a lot, and more teams should do it this way.
As for Martin, it was said probably a million times by just about everyone in the franchise that Martin was a project. This wasn’t some guy the Lions picked for no reason. Martin is a mountain of a man who doesn’t move like one. He’s got long arms and quick twitch with his hands. He could move, but he was green and needed to progress in his game. Had this worked out, the Lions would have had their starting nose tackle for years to come. But it didn’t, and now he’s gone.
Where Holmes deserves a ton of props is that he didn’t do what a lot of GMs would do and try to force it to work. It didn’t work, and he moved on to benefit the team. Holmes has largely shown since 2021 that he and the Lions will not anchor themselves to things that don’t work, and this was the biggest example. Cutting two recent third-round picks shows that more than anything else ever could. Holmes is a good GM and still a great drafter. This shouldn’t sway your opinion on him.
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