Ok, this was kind of hard, but I wanted to challenge myself with this one. On Thursday ESPN’s Bill Barnwell ranked the worst decision of all 32 NFL teams in the last five years. The Lions came in pretty low on the list and the mistake they chose had nothing to do with Brad Holmes.

It was Bob Quinn’s selection of Jeff Okudah with the 3rd overall pick in 2020 that got the nod for the Lions. This got me thinking. Is there a bad thing that Brad Holmes has done in the last four years that you could say “Man, that was the worst thing he has done?”

Holmes has drafted incredibly well and even in the small moments where you question a pick he has made, you almost always wind up being wrong about it later. He’s been fairly good at free agency as well. This year the Lions rebuilt their cornerback room and it’s worked very well. They did fail at it last year, but that clearly didn’t stop them from almost going the distance.

So what can you point at and say that was the worst thing he’s done? I think I have one. Holmes may have been a little too overconfident in his team’s pass-rush ability since 2022.

The Lions scored huge on Aidan Hutchinson, but they have yet to find a partner in crime for him. The Lions have pretty much sat out drafting or signing edge rushers in the last two years and the one guy they did sign, Marcus Davenport, has dealt with injuries annually and is currently out for the season with an injury.

Josh Paschal and Levi Onwuzurkie are two good players and they are phenomenal depth, but neither has really shown that they can be weekly starters that can make a huge difference.

I get where some of the confidence comes from. John Cominsky put forth a really nice 2022. Nobody knew he would struggle a ton in 2023 and then miss 2024. You can’t predict those things. The Davenport one felt like you could set your watch to it, but I still understand to a degree.

I can also understand why Holmes didn’t elect to trade for anyone at the deadline last year or sign any of the super high-priced guys this year. I can’t understand why he didn’t draft anyone or why he didn’t sign a second or third-tier guy to help out.

Holmes has sat still on edge rushers until he really needed to, bringing in Za’Darius Smith this year at the deadline after losing Hutchinson. Now the Lions have a pair next year assuming that Smith is still able to bring what he’s been bringing this year. The Lions might still want to double down and draft one.

This hasn’t shown to be a huge problem for the Lions at the end of the day and I’m not really even harping on the guy a lot. The exercise was to find something that you could say was the worst thing Holmes has done so far. This is what I chose. If this is as bad as it gets, then the Lions are in good shape for a while.