ALLEN PARK — Lions GM Brad Holmes’ draft philosophy has become quite clear during his first four drafts in Detroit.
He’s not going to reach on players just to fill a position.
In his first four drafts he’s moved up more than moving down during the draft process but it just worked that way. He reminded, it takes two teams to make a deal.
Holmes has developed his dos and don’ts.
“What I won’t do is what I’ve been saying that I won’t do that — I know you guys get frustrated with me not doing is looking at our depth chart like names black-and-white names with no football being played or anything – looking at a depth chart and seeing a position and then saying, ‘Man you’ve got to get that position. A player has to play that position.’”
That said, the biggest gap on the depth chart seems obvious. Certainly Holmes has considered drafting a pass rusher but not necessarily in the first round. It was a position of need after Aidan Hutchinson was knocked out of the season in Week 5 last season.
“You could draft a pass rusher every round, you could, it’s easy,’’ Holmes said. “That’s just like if a coach told me we want a guy who’s 6-4, 250. Getting a guy who’s 6-4, 250 is easy. I don’t know if he’s a good football player, but he’ll be 6-4, 250.
“It’s the same as you can draft a defensive end. If the player playing defensive end is not what we feel is going to be the right guy to really contribute to our football team then what are you guys going to write about that player,’’ Holmes asked.
The GM has adjusted during his Detroit tenure which started with needs at nearly every position. Now that he’s built a playoff-team roster, he still won’t zero in on specific needs because he said he’d rather have a surplus of players that he really likes.
The Lions have the 28th pick in tonight’s first round, followed by one pick in Round 2 (60th), one in Round 3 (102nd), one in Round 4 (130th), one in Round 6 (196th) and two in Round 7 (228th and 244th).
(The NFL draft opens tonight, April 24, at 8 p.m. with the first round. The second and third rounds are set for Friday at 7 p.m. Rounds 4-7 will start at noon on Saturday.)
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