The Lions Are Playing Their Cards Close to the Vest This Draft Season
Here we go again. Another year, another desperate attempt to decode what Brad Holmes is actually thinking as we barrel toward draft weekend. The Lions have always been a team that tells you a lot by who they bring through the doors in Allen Park, and frankly, that makes tracking their pre-draft visits about as close to actual intel as us fans are going to get.
This is the annual ritual. We track every reported visit, every formal meeting, every handshake that lasts longer than three seconds, hoping to find some breadcrumb that tells us whether this front office knows what the hell they’re doing. Because if you’ve been around long enough, you know the Lions have a history of doing additional work on players they actually draft.
But this year feels different. The Lions are being unusually secretive about their process.
Why This Year’s List Looks Different
We’re not tracking Senior Bowl, Shrine Bowl, or NFL Combine visits this time around. Not because they don’t matter, but because the reporting on those meetings is all over the place. Every team meets with every player at those all-star games, so that list wouldn’t tell us much. And Combine meetings? Sometimes it’s a formal sit-down that actually means something, sometimes it’s just Brad Holmes saying hello in the hallway.
The Lions also scrapped their local pro day this year. Holmes explained they decided to “utilize that time for some other things” while still doing local visits. Translation: they’re streamlining their process and keeping even more cards close to the vest.
So we’re left with just the pre-draft visits to Allen Park. Teams can host 30 prospects for these visits, where they do testing, interviewing, and film breakdown. Local players don’t count against that 30-player limit, which is why our list combines both types of visits.
The Current Visit List
Here’s what we know so far, and honestly, it’s not much:
The receivers getting looks include Demarcus Lacey from Marshall and Michigan’s Donaven McCulley. On the defensive line, they’ve brought in Tyre West from Tennessee, Caleb Banks from Florida, and Jay Hunt from Cincinnati.
The local Michigan guys are showing up too. Edge rushers Derrick Moore, Jaishawn Barham, and TJ Guy have all made the trip to Allen Park. Linebacker Jimmy Rolder and defensive back Andre Fuller from Toledo round out the reported list.
That’s it. Ten names. Either the Lions are being incredibly selective this year, or they’re just better at keeping things quiet than they used to be.
Reading the Tea Leaves
Look, if you’ve been following this team long enough, you know that Holmes and company tend to draft guys they’ve actually spent time with. It’s not a guarantee, but it’s a pattern. The problem is this year’s list is so short that it’s hard to draw any real conclusions.
What we can see is continued focus on the defensive line and some interest in local Michigan talent. The receiver visits are interesting given the depth of this year’s class, but two names isn’t exactly a smoking gun.
The reality is we’re probably missing a bunch of visits that just haven’t been reported yet. Teams are getting better at keeping their draft prep under wraps, and the Lions seem to be leading that charge this year.
Are we looking at a front office that’s finally learned to keep its mouth shut, or are they just being extra careful because they know something we don’t? Drop your conspiracy theories in the comments below.
I actually like that Holmes is keeping things quiet this year. Maybe it means they learned something about tipping their hand early. The fact that they’re being selective about who comes through Allen Park feels intentional to me, like they know exactly what they’re looking for and aren’t just doing the dog and pony show for every prospect out there.
Ten names though? Come on. Either we’re missing half the visits or this front office is being way too cute with the process. I’ve seen this movie before and I’m not getting excited until draft day actually happens. Show me the picks on the board, then we can talk about how smart the strategy was.
You know back in the day you could actually follow what the front office was doing because they’d let you. Now everything’s locked down like Fort Knox. Part of me respects the hush hush approach but part of me just misses when you could actually get a sense of what management was thinking heading into draft weekend.
I’m betting there’s way more visits happening that we just aren’t hearing about yet. Teams are getting smarter about controlling the narrative and I think that’s actually good for us. Less speculation, more actual work getting done behind closed doors.