{"id":20757,"date":"2025-04-17T22:56:31","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T22:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=20757"},"modified":"2025-04-17T22:56:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T22:56:31","slug":"burning-question-are-lions-willing-to-draft-developmental-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=20757","title":{"rendered":"Burning Question: Are Lions Willing to Draft Developmental Project?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Detroit<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The Detroit Lions have in the past targeted draft prospects who were basically redshirted their rookie campaign in the National Football League.<\/p>\n

Offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, defensive tackle Brodric Martin and quarterback Hendon Hooker have not had significant on-field contributions during the regular season and postseason.<\/p>\n

Heading into a pivotal draft, general manager Brad Holmes was asked about targeting players that are ready to contribute right away versus still being willing to target a player that has a high upside, but may need additional time to acclimate to the next level.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a fair question. It\u2019s got to be the right project. It\u2019s got to be the right developmental upside guy that might not be ready to go because there\u2019s a ton of them in every draft. (Giovanni) Manu is just one of those guys that was like, man, was really appealing and we had a lot of love for in the process and kind of just \u2013 we were in position to take him,” said Holmes. “But look, Derrick Barnes was developmental when we took him and was kind of still learning how to play the linebacker position and all that kind of stuff.”<\/p>\n

Holmes recalled back in 2021, the philosophy was different, as the team was looking to add as many talented football players as possible during a rebuilding period.<\/p>\n

Now, the team is again expected to be a playoff contender, but is stacked with talent at many different positions.<\/p>\n

Detroit’s front office has not been locked into any specific strategy, other than targeting players who are the right fit for the scheme and culture.<\/p>\n

\"Detroit<\/p>\n

Even though the Lions have Super Bowl aspirations, Holmes is not opposed to targeting players that could take a season or two to contribute on a weekly basis.<\/p>\n

“So, it all goes back to the right intangibles and who we feel is a good football player. But I totally understand. It\u2019s just that I think in the past we didn\u2019t really \u2013 like when we first started in \u201921, we didn\u2019t have as much talent on the roster at the time and all those young guys had to play,” said Holmes. “And then we were fortunate enough to have all those additional picks after the (Jared) Goff trade and I thought we made good use of those picks.<\/p>\n

“Those guys are really, really good players that were like immediate impact. So, we don\u2019t really go into like, \u2018Man we\u2019ve got to get high floor, ready to go but the ceiling might be a little lower.\u2019 Or, \u2018We\u2019re just going to take developmental guys.\u2019 There\u2019s no problem taking a developmental guy,” Holmes explained further. “Like I said, some of these guys, man you can take a late-round pick and it\u2019s got to be the right guy or it\u2019s going to be hard to make the roster.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Burning Question: Are Lions Willing to Draft Developmental Project?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-detroit-lions"],"yoast_head":"\nBurning Question: Are Lions Willing to Draft Developmental Project? - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=20757\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Burning Question: Are Lions Willing to Draft Developmental Project? - Breaking News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Burning Question: Are Lions Willing to Draft Developmental Project?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=20757\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Breaking News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-17T22:56:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/lion-34.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MrKen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MrKen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=20757\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=20757\",\"name\":\"Burning Question: Are Lions Willing to Draft Developmental Project? 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