Brad Holmes talks about the one player he regrets not drafting for the Lions and it would have been a game changer, how it almost happened
This would have been way different
Since 2021, Detroit Lions GM Brad Holmes has been killing it in the draft. It’s mostly been hit after hit. Almost to the point where it’s about to make life difficult for the franchise because they need to find a way to pay all these players. There have been some misses, but who doesn’t have them right? Every GM has a player that they regret not drafting. On Monday, we found out what Holmes’ regret is.
Holmes sat down with ESPN’s Kevin Clark on “This is Football” to discuss training camp, and at the end, Clark asked Holmes what was the one scouting report he could have back and who was the one guy he wished he had pounded the table for? Holmes’ answer was a bit surprising.
“The one that I’ve spoken about most recently is, is Puka Nacua,” Holmes said. “Ask my personnel staff. That’s the one that I brought up. That’s like, man, you know, it’s just, it is what it is. But you know what, if you don’t recognize those things, if you don’t self-assess yourself constantly, you can’t grow and you can’t get better…”
Well, that would have been a giant game changer, wouldn’t it have been? It totally could have happened, too. As everyone might remember, Nacua wasn’t soaring up draft boards in 2023. He was a fifth-round pick. Number 177, to be exact.
The Lions picked at 152 in the fifth round, and that would have actually been a good spot to take Nacua. They took William & Mary offensive lineman Colby Sorsdal instead. We know the Lions wanted a receiver because after they took Sorsdal, their next pick was North Carolina receiver Antoine Green. If Holmes had this one back, he likely would take Nacua at 152.
Then, the Lions would have had a receiving corps of Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, and Nacua. Don’t forget they also took Sam LaPorta and Jahmyr Gibbs in this draft. It’s already a good class for Detroit; it would have been an all-timer with Nacua.
Of course, it’s fair to wonder if Nacua is the same player in Detroit that he is with the Rams. The target share is a lot smaller in L.A. than it is here. There’s no doubt he’s talented, and that would have shown through. He just might not have been putting up Pro Bowl numbers right away.
If there’s one thing to take away from all this, it’s that Holmes knows he’s not perfect. Not that anyone thought that before. It’s just that you like to know you have a guy who knows he can do better with his hand on the wheel instead of the guy who refuses to believe he messed up. We’ve seen that before in Detroit.
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