Brad Holmes has built a reputation in Detroit for trusting his own board, his own drafts and his own instincts. Two weeks into this season, though, the Lions’ secondary mess is making that approach look awfully familiar - and not in a good way.
The latest move is another small one. Detroit worked out multiple defensive backs on Monday, had reported interest in former Indianapolis Colts cornerback Kenny Moore, and is reportedly set to sign Jalen Mills to the practice squad. Mills, now 32, already spent three games with the Lions late last season as part of the “Legion of Whoom.”
That kind of move tells you where this roster is right now: patchwork, temporary and still searching for real answers. And the secondary problem was not exactly a mystery.
Injuries to safeties Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch have hurt, but the bigger issue is that Detroit never really built enough depth around them. Terrion Arnold’s off-field situation only made things worse after the Lions took him at his word and got burned.
Even before that, the offseason felt light on true solutions. There were half-measures, names brought in to help, but not the kind of additions that change the outlook of a defense that always seems to need more help. Roger McCreary, Christian Izien, Rock-Ya Sin, Chuck Clark - those kinds of moves were part of the landscape, but they haven’t been enough.
This is where Holmes keeps running into the same criticism. When Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press pressed him recently on the obvious need to do more at cornerback, Holmes gave off that familiar “how dare you question me?”
vibe. The same thing happened when people asked about the lack of a proper edge-rushing partner for Aidan Hutchinson.
Two games into this season, that remains an issue too.
Holmes did make one major edge-rusher move, trading for Za’Darius Smith after Hutchinson suffered a broken leg in 2024. Even then, he later talked about how difficult the process was.
That’s the tension with Holmes’ approach. He can point to his 2021-2023 draft record, but that only carries you so far.
Outside of that, the free-agent track record has been thin. David Montgomery stands out as the best example of a home run signing, and it’s tough to find another outside addition that has worked nearly as well.
The pattern is clear enough: Holmes seems far more comfortable building from within than aggressively solving problems from the outside. He would likely argue that investing in players already in, or nearing, their peak years is risky.
There’s truth in that. But it also reads like a built-in excuse, and contending general managers usually don’t lean on it the same way.
So here the Lions are again, dealing with a problem that was easy to see before the season got rolling, and answering it with a familiar kind of move. Mills is a professional, and he should absolutely take the chance to keep playing. But for Detroit, this is another modest fix for a deeper issue that still looks unresolved.
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