Let me preface my points by saying that I love what Brad Holmes has been doing here in Detroit. He's been a very good GM all on his own accord. He's of course been a very good GM compared to the dog**** GMs we've had over the years from Russ Thomas to Matt Millen to Bob Quinn. My earliest memories of watching the Lions are from about 1992 when i was 5 years old and I think Holmes has easily assembled the most talented team of my lifetime. So I am very happy he is our GM and very happy with the job he has done.
That said, I am impatient, as many Lions fans are. I want, we all want, a Super Bowl appearance. In the NFL, your window could be long or it could close in the next season. Just ask fans of organizations like Arizona, Carolina, Jacksonville who had success one season and dropped off a cliff the next season. I'm not saying we will drop off a cliff, I don't believe we will. I do believe though that you have to strike while the iron is hot and do everything you can to win while your window is open.
Winning when your window is open doesn't mean you have to go full efff them picks mode like Les Snead in the Rams and trade the next 2-3 years worth of first round draft capital just to make a Super Bowl. I don't want our future completely mortgaged just to make or win a Super Bowl now. That said, something I feel that Holmes' former boss Snead and also Howie Roseman do understand is you have to be aggressive and strike while the iron is hot. They understand that you have a certain window to win and have to maximize your team's potential within that window. I don't think Holmes subscribes to this theory.
Rather, I think Holmes is the turtle in the rabbit race. Slow and steady wins the race. Meaning, you work with your staff and put a plan together. A plan that involves building a roster of largely your players, that you've drafted or already had in house. It means valuing draft capital as an asset for the draft, not assets to be traded for name-value or current NFL players. No matter what the fanbase, the media, the pundits, or other organizations think the Lions window to win may or may not be, Holmes doesn't care. And nor should he. As a GM, you have to be confident in your plan and have faith in the process. That doesn't mean though that you can't deviate once in a great while if a really good player can help your team at a position of need or a help put you over the top in being the very best team.
It's my and other fans impatience and notion that we are, already, a very good team, that makes us want to be more aggressive like a Roseman or Snead are. It's why we want Trey Hendrickson or Kevin Zietler or some sort of big time move to be made. When we see other, more successful GMs around Brad making moves and him largely standing pat or only making minor, depth-type moves, fans do get a bit frustrated. I know I certainly do.