In their first season with head coach Dan Campbell and General Manager Brad Holmes, the Lions went 3-13-1 and wound up earning the second overall pick in this year’s draft.
The close of the season was more encouraging than the start, however. The Lions won three of their final six games and Holmes noted that finish while making an appearance on NFL Network from the Scouting Combine on Tuesday.
Holmes said that those wins showed that the team’s plan to improve is a good one and that the pieces they put in place in 2021 have created a path to better records in the years to come. He also said he’d use those results as a way of pitching prospective Lions on coming to Detroit.
“Dan and I had a plan in place from the get go,” Holmes said, via SI.com. “We took some lumps early on. But as you said, you started to see that plan really come clear at the end of the season. What we can definitely offer is an outstanding culture. We have a culture of collaboration and communication. We’re all about grit. We have a multi-year plan in place. We have an outstanding head coach. Dan is special. We got great leadership from the top. I tell everybody, ‘If you want to be a part of this, good luck, it’s going to be a fun ride.’”
The Lions suffered a number of close losses and tied the Steelers in their first 11 games last season. Finding the right players to flip a few of those results their way would be a good step toward Holmes and Campbell turning their goals into reality.
