Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes met with the media on Wednesday afternoon, a day after dealing Pro Bowl tight end T.J. Hockenson to the Minnesota Vikings for a second-round pick in the 2023 NFL draft and a third-rounder in 2024.
The focus for Holmes was on the trade and all the details that go into it. Holmes spoke shortly after head coach Dan Campbell had spoken to the same local media.
Here’s what I took away from Holmes’ press conference.
Hockenson would have been traded even if the Lions were winning
Perhaps the most telling thing Holmes said in his seven minutes was this quote,
“This move is not reflective of our record. If our record was reversed and it made sense for us, then we would have still done it. So it wasn’t anything of that nature. It made sense for us and we just moved forward with it.”
This reinforces the popular notion that the move was based more on Hockenson’s contractual status and aspirations relative to his on-field production. Holmes did not believe that Hockenson’s four catches for 44 yards per game average is worth the $9.4 million he was due in 2023. Hockenson’s free agency contract, likely to rocket above $15 million a season was out of the question.
On that front, Holmes had this to say,
“There’s a lot of variables and factors that go into these decisions and I’m not going to say that (Hockenson’s contract) was not one of them that was looked at,” Holmes said. “That’s one of many that was looked at, but it wasn’t solely focused on that at all.”
It would be nice to see if the move would have indeed still happened if the Lions were 6-1 instead of 1-6, but we’ll never know. I’ll take Holmes’ words for that, however.
He's not worried about trading within the division
This is the second major trade between Holmes and Vikings counterpart Kwesi Adofo-Mensah this year. While many fans are aghast at making moves within the same division, Holmes believes the taboo nature of such deals is an antiquated notion.
“I think we both have the mindset of the whole trading within the division is, I think in our mind, it’s a little archaic way of thinking,” Holmes said. “When we make these kind of decisions, I’m totally at peace.”
The unspoken part here is that the Vikings almost certainly made the best offer. Keep in mind the 6-1 Vikings lost starting TE Irv Smith to an ankle injury over the weekend, an injury that could keep him out for the rest of the season. Hockenson was the best TE who might be available and it didn’t matter to them one bit that they were giving away two Day 2 draft picks to pick him up.
De facto acknowledgement the 2022 season is over
The Lions are 1-6 and have the worst defense in the NFL. It’s one of the worst defenses in NFL history and that’s even after a recent uptick. Four rookies will start on defense against Green Bay in Week 9.
For all intents and purposes, everything in the final 10 games of 2022 is about building to 2023. Holmes didn’t come out and say that directly, but that was clearly the message he was (begrudgingly) delivering on Wednesday.
“We’re still in the build phase,” Holmes said. “So I mean, with the capital that we received back from a compensation standpoint, I just think it made a lot of sense for us to continue on this build.”
In this case, “building” means “no expectation of winning”. That goes at odds with things Campbell has stated several times in recent weeks, and it’s going to be very interesting to see how that division in 2022 goals plays out.
They're absolutely not interested in tanking
Holmes was not directly asked about the concept of tanking, but when asked for a timeline of when fans can expect the Lions to be competitive he offered this,
“I mean, we’re working hard every single day to win as many games as possible. We’ve still got 10 games left and that’s what we’re working hard to do, so just because we’re in that phase of rebuilding doesn’t mean that we can’t go out, work as hard as we can, compete and win some games.”
He did not bite on giving concrete timelines or expectations, however. Read as: We’re going to try to win but we are aware other teams are better than us for the rest of 2022 and what happens, happens.
