Lions GM Brad Holmes explained why the team was not interested in spending a ton of money in free agency this year.
During his media session at the NFL owners meetings, it’s clear Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes wanted to convey a message to fans about their modest free agency period over the last month.
“I don’t know if I was as clear as I could have been at the combine, but I tried to kind of let our fans know that we were not going to be big spenders coming up because of all (the) things we have coming up in the future,” Holmes said in his opening press conference.
Fans and some national analysts insisted that the Lions needed to be big spenders in free agency to get them over the hump to become Super Bowl favorites this year. Holmes, as he has done many times throughout his career, insisted that his job is to make sure that the Lions compete for a title this year while also keeping the team competitive for as long as possible. And with extensions almost certainly coming for Aidan Hutchinson and Kerby Joseph—along with likely three or four extensions from Detroit’s 2023 draft class coming soon—the Lions needed to be savvy with 2025 cap space knowing unspent money can roll over into next season. Ultimately, they only ended up signing seven external free agents, and only one—cornerback D.J. Reed—received a deal worth more than $4 million per year.
“I do think that’s part of the discipline that’s required for where we’re at as a football team right now,” Holmes said. “That is, yes, the balance of winning now but also wanting to sustain winning as well.”
Holmes likened their situation to managing a family budget. Sometimes because of mortgages to pay off and kids’ college funds to set aside, the big vacation—splash free agency signings in this analogy—have to wait.
“We had so many of these young players that have been on rookie deals and we’ve been enjoying the impact that they’ve all been bringing,” Holmes said. “But now, a bill is coming. What you spend this year is going to impact next year, even impacts 2027. So, that’s the discipline that we have to adhere to.”
Despite that, Holmes actually believes they came out of free agency with more than they expected. They knew they wanted to be active in the cornerback market, but when they saw that top end talent was going for over $16 million a year—their own Carlton Davis signed an $18 million a year contract with the Patriots—he wasn’t sure if they’d be able to be as competitive as they wanted. But he viewed getting Reed on a three-year, $48 million deal as a bargain.
“The get-in-the-door entry price was $16 million. If you would have told me that we would have been able to get a corner for that much with the defensive linemen that we were able to get and getting TP (Tim Patrick) back and all that, I wouldn’t have thought we were going to be able to do that,” Holmes said.
Perhaps the biggest bargain that the Lions were able to snag was re-signing defensive Levi Onwuzurike on a one-year, $4 million contract .
“If you were to tell me that we were gonna get that done back when we were first trying to get Levi extended back in the fall, I would have been doing a backflip, and literally almost was doing a backflip,” Holmes said. “Because like I said, I did not think that we were going to be able to get a player of his caliber back.”
Detroit was also able to re-sign Marcus Davenport ($1.75 million), Al-Quadin Muhammad ($1.2 million), and Pat O’Connor ($1.1 million) to very reasonable deals for defensive linemen, while adding nose tackle Roy Lopez on a one-year, $3.6 million deal.
Ultimately, Holmes believes the team successfully walked the fine line between keeping this team in a great spot to compete this year, while not mortgaging their chances to remain a contender in the expensive years that follow. And in the meantime, the new players they did add, like Reed, Lopez, and linebacker Grant Stuard, were high targets on Detroit’s list.
“I’m more than happy with how free agency went. I say more than happy because we were able to get guys that we really wanted to get,” Holmes said. “That’s always the case. Like, we don’t compromise and get a prospect that we’re warm on.”