Report: Lions to hire Rams college scouting director Brad Holmes as GM

The Detroit Lions have found their next general manager. The team is expected to hire Brad Holmes for the role, per Adam Schefter. Holmes is currently the college scouting director for the Los Angeles Rams.

Holmes played defensive line in college and got his first NFL opportunity as a public relations intern with the Rams in 2003 when they were still in St. Louis. His goal was to move into scouting and he did so in 2004 when he was hired as a scouting assistant. He became the director of college scouting in 2013, marking eight years in that role. This year, he was a finalist for the Atlanta Falcons GM position.

Dating back to his 2013 move into the college scouting director role, the Rams have drafted notable contributors like LB Alec Ogletree (2013), DT Aaron Donald (2014), RB Todd Gurley (2015), QB Jared Goff (2016), WR Cooper Kupp, S John Johnson, and OLB Samson Ebukam (2017), DT Sebastian Joseph (2018), OG David Edwards (2019), and RB Cam Akers (2020).

Notably, the Lions decision to hire Holmes will net the Rams a pair of third round comp picks because he is a minority hire. One will be in this year’s draft and one will be in the 2022 NFL Draft. The league made the change in May 2020 in an attempt to boost minority hiring in senior coaching and personnel roles.