The Detroit Lions entered the 2025 season with sky-high expectations after back-to-back postseason appearances. But when the playoffs kicked off without them, the silence in Allen Park was deafening.
General Manager Brad Holmes didn't sugarcoat the disappointment during his candid appearance on Good Morning Football. In what Lions OnSI dubbed the "State of the Lions" interview, Holmes laid bare the frustration that has fueled an aggressive offseason overhaul.
"That's a bad taste in your mouth," Holmes admitted. "When you feel like you're trending in the right direction, but we never got to where we really wanted to get to... to not be in it, that was a bad taste."
For a team that had built genuine momentum, the sudden regression stung. And rather than run it back with the same approach, Holmes and the Lions front office decided to shake things up.
"We're like, okay look, let's make sure that we're not just being the definition of insanity, and keep doing the same thing over and over again," Holmes said.
That philosophy translated into real changes. Detroit scrapped its traditional rookie minicamp, canceled joint practices, and completely re-evaluated its offseason schedule. Every detail was put under the microscope.
The roster itself saw significant reinforcement. The Lions prioritized building depth in the trenches, retooling the offensive line, and injecting competition into a defense that needed a spark. Free agency and the draft were both leveraged to address weaknesses that had been exposed during the 2025 campaign.
Holmes acknowledged that there are no guarantees in the NFL, but he sounded confident in the foundation being laid for 2026. "We took a long, hard look at a lot of things," he explained. "We made some tweaks and adjustments, but we really felt good about the things we were able to do from a roster standpoint."
For Lions fans still smarting from last season's letdown, the message is clear: complacency is not an option, and this team is ready to prove that 2025 was the exception, not the new standard.