The Detroit Lions received a call from the Philadelphia Eagles to trade down in the first round, but Brad Holmes wasn’t interested.
The Detroit Lions 2025 NFL Draft could have gone a million different ways than it did, and it started in the first round. On Thursday night, the Lions stayed patient, sticking with their original 28th overall pick and selecting Ohio State defensive tackle Tyleik Williams.
But a video from the Philadelphia Eagles —“96 hours Inside the Eagles Draft Room ”—shows that the Lions had an opportunity to trade back four spots to the final pick of the night.
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman was feeling a little eager on Day 1. Starting with the 22nd pick, Roseman picked up the phone and called as many teams as he could about a potential trade up. With Alabama linebacker Jihaad Campbell surprisingly still on the board, Roseman wanted to ensure he was an Eagle.
Eventually, Roseman calls the Lions, and we can only hear Philly’s side of the conversation.
“Any interest in moving back?” Roseman said.
After receiving Holmes’ answer, Roseman said into the phone, “That’s fair. I appreciate the honesty.”
After hanging up, he turned to the war room and said, “Detroit, I just spoke to. They said no.”
This news doesn’t really come as a surprise. After Day 1 of the NFL Draft, Holmes admitted that they had received a few calls, and one, in particular, was tempting.
“Got a few calls when it got close to our pick,” Holmes said. “Just didn’t feel great, just kind of how it was thinning out for us specifically. That’s the fascination of the NFL, right? It’s 31 other different boards, and you have no idea. You can do all the research in advance and all that stuff, but at the end of the day, you truly don’t know. That’s what makes it fun. You’ve just kind of got to try to make the most responsible decision that you can.
“We thought about it. There was one enticing one, but we just felt that with the depth of that group right there and how the board was falling out, felt it was the most responsible thing to stay put.”
It’s clear that the Lions viewed Williams as one of the last few remaining players in that tier and didn’t want to risk losing him. Williams himself revealed that the Buffalo Bills —who had the 30th overall pick—were very interested in him.
“They kind of told me if I was there, they wanted me,” Williams said. “I had talks with the head coach, D-line coach—they said they loved my game and how I play. But it definitely was a possibility.”
So, if Detroit had made that trade with the Eagles, it’s very possible they would not have had a chance at Williams.
Meanwhile, the Eagles ended up getting pretty lucky. While most of their trade-up attempts were rebuffed, Campbell continued to fall. And when the Chiefs were on the clock at 31, the Eagles were finally able to get that trade up—just one spot—to nab the Crimson Tide linebacker.
You can watch the entire video here . The brief conversation with Holmes is around the 5:20 mark.