Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes spoke for over 40 minutes on Thursday to recap the 2025 season and look ahead to the 2026 offseason. Here are the biggest takeaways from the press conference.

Note: I am not including Holmes’ comments on David Montgomery. Those were covered in a separate piece here.

Brad Holmes admits to mistakes… but doesn’t specify which ones

Many fans were hoping Brad Holmes would take some culpability for the team’s failures in 2025 after he had taken a rather confident attitude in previous years. The Lions general manager did… sort of. He said unequivocally...

One of the more disappointing developments from the 2025 season was the use of running back David Montgomery. The Lions’ No. 2 running back saw is carries drop from 185 in 2024 to just 158 in 2025. His playing time dropped from about 28 snaps per game to 24. The Lions continued to insist they wanted to get him more involved, but the rise of Jahmyr Gibbs and the game situation made it tough for them to rely on their veteran, reliable back.

On Thursday, during his end-of-season press conference, Lions general manager Brad Holmes admitted there needs to be...

There is a second offensive coordinator candidate for the Detroit Lions. According to Ian Rapoport, the Lions have reached out to former Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel for their coaching vacancy.

McDaniel was considered one of the brightest offensive minds in football after spending much of his early career with Kyle Shanahan. He was an offensive assistant and wide receiver coach for Washington while Shanahan was the offensive coordinator there. He then followed Shanahan to the San Francisco 49ers to serve as the run game coordinator for four years and offensive coordinator for one.

McDaniel was able to parlay...

Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes is currently scheduled to have his end-of-season press conference on Thursday. Many Lions fans are eagerly anticipating this press conference after a frustrating end to the 2025 season. There is a palpable eagerness to see what Holmes will say about with some of the moves he did (and didn’t make) the past year for a season that failed to meet expectations in nearly every single way.

Here are the five things I’m hoping to learn from Holmes press conference.

So many offensive line questions

• When did you know about Frank Ragnow’s potential...

The NFL coaching carousel is underway for the 2026 offseason. Currently, there are seven head coaching vacancies, which means there are coaches at all levels of the NFL that may be looking for employment and teams that are searching for new blood within their organization.

For the Detroit Lions, there is bound to be some overturn amongst their ranks, as well. While they won’t be searching for a new head coach, there is already a vacancy at offensive coordinator after the team parted ways with John Morton after just one season. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the Lions make...

We know a lot went wrong in the Detroit Lions’ in 2025. There are plenty of reasons they will not be playing football this weekend, while the top-14 teams in the league will still be fighting for a Super Bowl. The offensive line took a big step back, Detroit clearly made a regrettable hire at offensive coordinator, the defense went through a handful of key injuries and also just played inconsistently from week-to-week, and there were also significant coaching mistakes at key moments in their losses.

It’s easy to identify the problems. It’s harder to take those problems, learn from...

David Blough is the first name to emerge as a candidate for the Detroit Lions’ vacant offensive coordinator position. The Lions certainly have more names in mind that they will consider for the position, but Blough’s emergence has certainly evoked a lot of emotion in Lions fans.

I, too, have some complicated thoughts about Blough as a candidate for the job. So let’s break them down: my four reasons I like him and three reasons I don’t.

4 reasons Blough should be a legitimate candidate

He’s got a firm grasp of the Lions’ scheme

Let’s be honest with...

As the Detroit Lions turn the corner to the offseason ahead, we’ve officially entered Mock Draft season. Our Mock Draft Roundup series will return later in the week, but we thought it’d be a good idea to kick things off by breaking down a Mock Draft from the SB Nation mothership, composed by long-time respected NFL Draft analyst Mark Schofield.

The early expectations for this draft cycle for the Detroit Lions anticipate the Lions focusing on the trenches, most notably on the offensive line and edge rushers.

Schofield has quarterbacks Fernando Mendoza (Indiana) and Dante Moore (Oregon) as the first...

On Tuesday, the Detroit Lions coach, Dan Campbell, relieved offensive coordinator John Morton of his duties with the organization. It was not an overly surprising move, as his play-calling responsibilities were taken away midseason, and that seemingly put the Lions in a position to search for an offensive coordinator for the second consecutive offseason.

Here’s a look at five candidates—plus a quick look at eight others—the Lions should consider for their vacant offensive coordinator position.

Todd Monken, Ravens offensive coordinator

Monken is still technically under contract with the Ravens, but the speculation is that his situation will change very...

Each week of the regular season, SB Nation tracks NFL fans’ confidence levels of their favorite teams with their Reacts Surveys posted on their team websites. For Pride of Detroit, we are tasked with gauging Detroit Lions fans’ confidence in the team heading into each game—and in this case, after the conclusion of the 2025 NFL regular season.

In this week’s Reacts survey, we have two questions for Lions fans:

1. Are you confident the Lions are headed in the right direction?
2. What grade would you give coach Dan Campbell for his performance during the 2025 season?

As for...

The Detroit Lions’ search for a new offensive coordinator has just begun, but one candidate has already emerged. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, former Lions quarterback David Blough is a candidate to fill the role left after John Morton’s firing.

Blough is only two years into his coaching career after retiring from playing after the 2023 season. He has spent the last two seasons as the Washington Commanders’ assistant quarterbacks coach, helping young quarterback Jayden Daniels emerge as a strong franchise player for Washington. Late in the 2025 season, Commanders quarterbacks coach Tavita Pritchard took the Stanford head coaching...

On Tuesday, the Detroit Lions announced that they’ve signed former Bengals center Seth McLaughlin to a future contract. As a reminder, future contracts are typically minimum-salary deals signed to players who finished the previous season on the practice squad.

McLaughlin, 24, went undrafted in 2025, but signed with the Bengals a couple weeks after the draft. He spent the entire 2025 season on the team’s practice squad, and was not elevated at any point. On Monday, Cincinnati signed 13 players from their practice squad to futures contracts, but McLaughlin wasn’t one of them.

In college, McLaughlin was a four-star recruit...