Lions Clips
Lions General Manager Brad Holmes traded up in the first round in 2024 to draft cornerback Terrion Arnold and traded up in the first round in 2022 to draft wide receiver Jameson Williams. He’ll trade up again this year, if the right player is available.
The Lions own the 17th overall pick, and Holmes was asked whether he’d use some of his other eight picks to trade up in the first round for a player he expected to make a significant impact. Holmes told reporters that if the player is good enough, he wouldn’t hesitate.
“Absolutely. Yeah, if it’s the right guy. You guys know me. I feel like you guys get mad at me sometimes, I do it too much sometimes. But, no, if we have that kind of conviction for a player, absolutely. We’re going to go and get him,” Holmes said.
Holmes also made clear that he targets the players he thinks are the best, not the positions he thinks the Lions need the most.
“It’s hard to sleep at night when you don’t get the player you really, really wanted because you reached for a need,” Holmes said.
And Holmes may not wait patiently at No. 17 for the player he really, really wants.
The Lions parted ways with longtime left tackle Taylor Decker this offseason and that’s led many to suggest that the position will be one they address in the draft, but General Manager Brad Holmes did his best on Monday to downplay any urgency.
Holmes signed Larry Borom as a free agent and he could start at right tackle with Penei Sewell moving over to Decker’s former spot on the line. Holmes noted Borom’s experience and placed him in a group with edge rusher D.J. Wonnum of new additions who make it less necessary for the Lions to force picks at either spot.
“You’re talking about guys that have been starters in the NFL,” Holmes said, via Benjamin Raven of MLive.com. “But just kind of look at where the trend is going, where the arrow is going the last time, they’re still young. But we feel good about both of them, so we don’t feel like it’s, you know, we have to supplement them if it doesn’t work out.”
Offensive tackle and edge rusher are significant enough spots on the roster that the Lions would likely consider addressing them even without the current makeup of both depth charts, but Holmes didn’t paint himself into any corners Monday.
The Giants hosted veteran defensive tackle D.J. Reader for a free agent visit on Monday, according to Jordan Schultz of The Schultz Report.
Reader, 31, recently visited the Ravens and is expected to sign with a new team post-draft.
He ranks 40th on PFT’s list of this year’s top free agents.
Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence has requested a trade, but the team wanted to add at the position anyway after ranking 31st against the run in 2025.
Reader started every game for the Lions last season and finished the year with 28 tackles. He also played 15 games for the Lions in 2024 and previously appeared in 105 games for the Bengals and Texans.
He has 328 tackles, 12.5 sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery in his career.
That means Detroit has to decide on the fifth-year options for both players in the coming weeks.
Given their respective performances, it seems likely that the Lions will elect to pick up both. But General Manager Brad Holmes did not confirm that during his pre-draft press conference on Monday.
“We haven’t yet [exercised the options], but we’ve already had discussions about both of them,” Holmes said, via transcript from the team.
Gibbs and Campbell could both be in line for contract extensions. Gibbs ascended into a being a full-time starter in 2025, rushing 243 times for 1,223 yards with 13 touchdowns. He also caught 77 passes for 616 yards with five TDs. He previously led the league with 20 rushing and receiving touchdowns in 2024.
Campbell was a first-team, All-Pro in 2025, having recorded 176 total tackles with nine tackles for loss and five sacks. He also registered four passes defensed and three forced fumbles.
Gibbs’ fifth-year option for 2027 is projected to come in at $14.293 million, as he’s been selected to more than one Pro Bowl. Campbell’s deal is set to see him get paid $21.925 million, as he’s been selected to one Pro Bowl.
On Sunday, news emerged regarding draft prospect Rueben Bain’s involvement in a fatal car crash in 2024. It prompted crowing from some NFL insiders who claimed that they knew all about it — but inexplicably failed to do their job of, you know, reporting it to their audiences.
Regardless, it’s apparently old news. (I didn’t know about it, or you would have seen it here.)
On Monday, Lions G.M. Brad Holmes confirmed that his team was aware of the situation.
“We’ve known that for a while, so that doesn’t really change anything from our standpoint,” Holmes said.
If all teams knew, it really doesn’t matter. The fact that it has become public, however, could prompt some owners to become uncomfortable with drafting him in a premier spot. And he could potentially slide a bit.
Like Jalen Carter did in 2023. The top-five prospect landed at No. 9. And the Eagles had no qualms about taking the two-time Pro Bowler and 2023 defensive rookie of the year finalist.
It still remains amazing that no one reported it. It’s obviously newsworthy. Why didn’t anyone who knew about it report it?
Chris Payton-Jones, a former cornerback in the NFL and UFL, has died. He was 30.
Via Justin Barney of News4Jax, Payton-Jones was involved in a car accident on Saturday night.
Undrafted out of Nebraska in 2018, Payton-Jones played for the Cardinals, Lions, Vikings, and Titans. He appeared in 29 regular-season games, with six starts.
He played for the Seattle Sea Dragons of the XFL in 2023. He then played for the UFL’s St. Louis Battlehawks in 2024 and 2025.
“Chris was a beloved teammate and leader in the locker room, who demonstrated the importance of hard work, determination, and resilience throughout his career,” the UFL said in a statement. “As importantly, Chris was always a bright soul who everyone throughout the league enjoyed spending time with off-the-field during his three-year tenure.”
Payton-Jones had retired from football in January.
We extend our condolences to his family, friends, teammates, and coaches.
The Buccaneers have agreed to terms with a pair of cornerbacks on one-year deals.
Kemon Hall is signing with the Buccaneers, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports, and Chase Lucas is also joining the team, Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports.
Hall, 28, spent last season with the Titans.
After being reinstated from an NFL suspension, Hall went back and forth between the active roster and the practice squad. He played 66 defensive snaps and 70 on special teams in four games and totaled nine tackles and a forced fumble.
Hall entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Chargers in 2019. He has also spent time with the Vikings, Saints, Cowboys, Chargers and 49ers.
In 28 games, Hall has recorded 24 tackles, one forced fumble and one recovered fumble.
Lucas, 29, was with the 49ers last season and played 98 defensive snaps and 204 on special teams in 15 games.
The Lions made him a seventh-round pick in 2022, and he has 15 tackles and a pass defensed in 33 career games.
The Lions brought a free agent veteran defensive lineman in for a visit on Tuesday.
The league’s daily transaction report shows that the team reported a meeting with defensive tackle Jay Tufele.
Tufele played in 12 games and made two starts for the Jets during the 2025 season. He had 12 tackles in those appearances.
Prior to joining the Jets, Tufele spent three seasons with the Bengals. He had 42 tackles in 30 games with Cincinnati and began his career by playing in four games for the Jaguars in 2021.
The Lions have added D.J. Wonnum and Payton Turner to their defensive line so far this offseason.
Defensive back Avonte Maddox will be back with the Lions in 2026.
The Lions announced that they re-signed Maddox on Monday afternoon. They did not announce any terms of the deal.
Maddox signed a one-year deal with the Lions last March and appeared in 14 games during his first season with the team. He made three starts and ended the year with 32 tackles, an interception and a forced fumble.
Maddox entered the league as a 2018 fourth-round pick and spent his first seven seasons with the Eagles. He had 270 tackles, three sacks, four interceptions, eight forced fumbles and a fumble recovery during his time in Philly.
Longtime Lions left tackle Taylor Decker asked for and received his release this offseason after the team wanted him to take a pay cut. But while Decker is done as a Lion, he wouldn’t want to be a rival of the Lions.
That’s the word from Justin Rogers, who interviewed Decker and wrote about him for DetroitFootball.net and learned that Decker wouldn’t want to play for the Bears or Packers.
“He wants to play for a winner. Yet he’s kind of thinking about, ‘Is it cheap to go win somewhere else after you’ve invested all your energy emotionally and physically into one franchise?’” Rogers said on the Lions Collective podcast. “I will tell you that he’s pretty anti-playing for the Bears or Packers. That’s the Lions background in him. I know Ben Johnson did it and that was the right situation for him, but Taylor feels kind of dirty about the idea. It just isn’t interesting to him. I could see him joining a team mid-season, the further he gets away from football and games being played, injuries happening and the right offer occurs. I could also see him not playing.”
Decker didn’t appreciate how the Lions approached him this offseason, asking him to take less money after he had been loyal to the team and spent a decade playing for them. But he still very much considers himself a Lion.
“Taylor Decker wants to be remembered as a Lion, to the point where he wants back in the fold,” Rogers said. “Wherever this season may go, whether he plays for someone else or doesn’t, he wants to come here, sign the one-day contract, retire a Lion.”
Decker will be warmly received by Lions fans whenever he does return to Detroit, and not wanting to play for a rival is one of the things Lions fans love about him.
