It’s been quite some time since we checked in with Detroit Lions fans regarding their opinion of general manager Brad Holmes. The last time we polled our audience was almost exactly a year ago, following the team’s 2025 NFL Draft. Unfortunately, those poll results were lost to time (and a migration to a new content management system at SB Nation).
Detroit, MI
Detroit Lions’ path to Super Bowl will go through San Francisco
ALLEN PARK — The Detroit Lions’ path to the Super Bowl will go through San Francisco.
The top-seeded 49ers stormed back to beat the seventh-seeded Green Bay Packers 24-21 on Saturday night, clinching their spot in the NFC championship game. They’ll host the winner of Detroit and Tampa Bay, who square off in a divisional game on Sunday afternoon at Ford Field.
The Lions have enjoyed a tremendous home-field advance this season, and the noise reached record levels for their wild-card win against the Los Angeles Rams last weekend. They would have hosted the NFC championship game too had Green Bay prevailed on Saturday night, and the Packers led for most of the evening. But rookie kicker Anders Carlson missed a 41-yard field goal wide left in the fourth quarter, then the 49ers responded with a 12-play, 69-yard drive that was capped by a 6-yard touchdown by Christian McCaffrey with 1:07 remaining in the game.
With that, the Lions are set to host their final game of the season against Tampa. If they prevail in that game, they’ll head to San Francisco for a play-in game to the Super Bowl.
The Lions haven’t faced the 49ers since giving them all they could handle in the first game of the Dan Campbell regime in 2021, storming back from a 41-17 deficit in the final two minutes to pull within 41-33, before finally bowing out on a fourth-and-9 misfire from Jared Goff at San Francisco’s 24-yard line.
Of course, a whole lot has changed since. Only 18 players who saw a snap in that game for Detroit are currently on the 53-man roster — a total rebuild that has now propelled the Lions to their first playoff win in 32 years. Win a second straight playoff game for the first time since 1957, and Detroit will be headed to San Francisco, with a trip to Las Vegas at stake.
But as you can see below, Holmes has been an extremely popular figure among Detroit sports fans for pretty much his entire career.
Although, if there was a time when Holmes’ popularity took a hit, it was likely during the 2025 NFL season, when the Lions took their first clear step back since he and Dan Campbell came to town.
Since last year’s data was lost to time, this is a good opportunity to check back in with Lions fans. While Holmes certainly deserves a ton of credit for getting the Lions back to relevancy and helping them produce four consecutive seasons with winning records, there are some serious blemishes on his resumé now. The 2024 NFL Draft class has not lived up to his high standards through two seasons, some of his riskiest picks over the last few years have all failed to pay off, and last year’s roster just wasn’t good enough to withstand the injuries.
But Holmes is also coming off a very crowd-pleasing draft. Detroit addressed their two biggest needs with their first two selections, and there were no crazy head-scratching picks or expensive trade ups. Many have categorized his latest draft as “back to business as usual,” which could have some fans he lost back on his side.
However, that is all up to you. Vote on your thoughts about Holmes’ time in Detroit below, and share your extended thoughts in the comment section at the bottom of the page.
Dan Gilbert paid for an army of Cleveland Cavaliers fans to take over Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena for Game 2 of the NBA playoffs against the rival Detroit Pistons.
Gilbert, the longtime Cavs owner who has founded several Detroit-based companies and owns much of the real estate in downtown Detroit, sent seven bus loads of Cavs season ticket holders up I-75 North on Thursday, May 7, to wear maroon and gold shirts that read “BEAT DETROIT!”
Coworkers Rick Amador, 46, of Lorain, Ohio, and Eric Karr, 24, of Strongsville, Ohio, said they were thankful their trip to the playoffs in Detroit was fully paid for.
“Dan Gilbert fully paid for all of our tickets, paid for the shirts that you see here today,” Amador said. “He paid for the swag and he brought us here, fed us. We had a party at The Beacon [in Detroit, owned by Gilbert]. DJ, food, it was phenomenal.”
[ Pistons vs Cavaliers score updates, Game 2 highlights, commentary ]
Gilbert earned a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State and a law degree from Wayne State in downtown Detroit.
“I’m just ready to bring a dub home to Cleveland,” Karr said. “It’s been a long time coming. We got lucky with LeBron [James] always coming here and now it’s time for us to build our own future and win our own championship. All of them. Yes, Donovan [Mitchell] has to have his legacy game.”
The Pistons on Tuesday night won Game 1 of the best-of-seven series, 111-101, in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Games 3-4 will be in Cleveland on Saturday afternoon and Monday night.
As for a prediction for the rest of the series?
“Five games, Cavs win it,” Karr said without hesitation.
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