Detroit Lions GM Brad Holmes Explains His Affinity for Georgia Football

Detroit Lions GM Brad Holmes explains why he has such an affinity for Georgia football players.

Detroit Lions Executive Vice President & General Manager Brad Holmes speaks to the press about their season, how it ended and what’s next at the Detroit Lions headquarters and training facility in Allen Park, Mich., Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. | Kimberly P. Mitchell / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Detroit Lions GM Brad Holmes explains why he has such an affinity for Georgia football players.

Over the past couple of years, some NFL teams have created a reputation for selecting Georgia football players during the NFL draft. The Philadelphia Eagles are the most famous examples of this but the Detroit Lions took a stab at this during this year's NFL draft.

The Lions selected three Georgia players this year: Offensive lineman Tate Ratledge, safety Dan Jackson and wide receiver Dominic Lovett. Following the draft, general manager Brad Holmes explained what led him to selecting three former Bulldogs.

“Before I got this job, I was living in Atlanta, Georgia for a long time, just scouting the Southeast,” Holmes said. “And then when the Rams moved out to LA, just kind of stayed in Atlanta. But obviously, have been to Georgia practices a lot, and been around that program a lot. It’s unlike anything else that I’ve seen live in terms of college practice, in terms of just the intensity."

Holmes continued by drawing comparisons between what Georgia head coach Kirby Smart does and what Nick Saban was doing at Alabama.

“(Nick) Saban at Alabama was very similar, but just the intensity, the physicality, the detail, the tempo, the whole thing, the energy," Holmes continued. "So when you can go through that kind of regimen and you practice like that, you know that they’re ready.”

Georgia had 13 total players selected during the 2025 NFL draft. Only two shy of the NFL draft record that they set back in 2022 when they had 15 total players drafted, five of them going in the first round.

Coach Smart and his staff have set a standard of excellence at the University of Georgia which has led them to producing NFL-caliber players at high rate, and now the Lions are hoping to add some of that to their roster this year.

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