Brad Holmes got his man. It took a trade up in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft, but that’s nothing new. When the Lions GM loves a player, he’ll find a way to make it happen.
On Thursday night, Holmes saw Alabama cornerback Terrion Arnold falling unexpectedly in the first round. Almost universally projected to go somewhere between No. 11 and No. 18, Arnold was still there when the Vikings traded up to No. 17. That was enough to get Holmes calling in an effort to engineer a trade of his own to land Arnold.
“Yeah, I mean, I was calling late teens,” Holmes told reporters after the pick. “I was calling just trying to see. I didn’t think he was going to be there. Really, didn’t think he was going to be there calling late teens, but really trying and thinking we were going to have to settle for a different player at a different position but still trade up.”
The unusual progression of the first round, with 14 straight offensive players to start the draft and only one minor trade in the first 15 picks, definitely changed the dynamics for Holmes and the Lions.
“It wasn’t a whole lot of trade backs that early just because it kind of fell, I think well for a lot of people. So, I’m still a little kind of – never thought he would be there, but we couldn’t be more thrilled.”
Holmes made it clear that Arnold was very high on the very short priority list entering the first round.
“We had a pretty, let’s call it ‘significant’ line underneath him to the next guy in our opinion. It wasn’t – we didn’t really have a lot of guys that were up there even in that first round bucket at that position, but he was one of the small few that was even up there in consideration for us.”
