Pride of Detroit
A detailed breakdown of the Detroit Lions’ 2025 draft class—as told by Lions GM Brad Holmes.
We can stand here all we want and try to break down the Detroit Lions’ 2025 NFL Draft class all we want. But isn’t it better to just hear it from the man who drafted them himself?
Lions general manager Brad Holmes met with the media after every night of the draft, he talked to FOX 2 Detroit’s Dan Miller, and he already made a radio appearance on 97.1 The Ticket.
So below is a full recap of what Holmes has said about each individual draft pick he made, via his own words. If you want to listen to Holmes himself, these are the direct resources from theses quotes:
Holmes press conferences:
One of the biggest things Holmes tried to convey about Williams is that while his ability to stop the run is obviously elite, he has the athleticism to unlock plenty of potential in the pass rush, much like they did with Alim McNeill:
“Just the balance that he’s able to offer in both phases. What he does in the run game I think is very obvious and very stated and documented, but there is upside with him as a pass rusher. So I do compare him to a lot of when Alim (McNeill) came out, he probably came out as more of a nose tackle only, but we all thought that Alim had three-technique in him. So once Alim develops and became more of a three-technique, that’s when his pass rush took off. So we think that Tyleik has those same kind of abilities.”
And while all the athletic traits are out there, Holmes also highlighted the smarts behind the player:
“He has the physical skillset, he’s got the power. He’s got the bend and the agility. He’s a very nimble athlete, but the thing about it is that he’s incredibly instinctive, too. In my opinion, him and one other DT that were in this class were the top-two instinctive defensive tackles in this whole class, and he was one of those guys. I think his versatility is really going to help.”
Holmes didn’t talk a lot about Ratledge. Unfortunately, the pick got lost in a cavalcade of questions about his trade up for Isaac TeSlaa and the team’s decision not to draft an EDGE on Day 2.
On draft night, he gave some vague quotes about his fit within the organization.
“He has the makeup, he has the attitude, he has the intelligence. He has all the things that you need to be on the o-line for us.”
But in his interview with Miller, he gave a much more thorough answer:
“Played through some...
