Brad Holmes Addresses Targeting So Many Players With Injury History

Detroit Lions have not had much targeting players with injury history.

Detroit Lions executive vice president and general manager Brad Holmes speaks during media availability | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes has earned an unfortunate reputation for targeting players that have too many injury concerns.

Granted, most football players are going to face an injury at some point in their career, but the Lions have been besieged by injuries the last couple of seasons, most notably on defense.

Holmes has been willing to even re-sign players that missed a significant amount of playing time while in Detroit.

Speaking to local reporters earlier this week, Holmes was asked about the Lions approach to acquiring players who have an injury history.

"Look, football's a physical game and injuries occur and so injuries are, yeah, some guys have had them in the past, some have not," said Holmes. "You can sign a player that's never really missed much time, and something can happen at any point. So, you just understand the risk whenever you make an acquisition of any player and know that anything can happen at any time.

"That's our job up here to make sure that we have succession plans and different points where you can pivot in place in case that happens.”

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Cornerback Emmanuel Moseley battled knee injuries, but was still brought back for the 2024 season, despite tearing his ACL in 2023. He had suffered the same injury the year prior with the San Francisco 49ers.

In 2024, he was again placed on the injured reserve list after suffering a torn pectoral muscle.

Holmes has also struggled to target healthy free agent defensive ends. Marcus Davenport was a player that struggled with injuries prior to joining the roster.

After missing most of the 2024 season, Holmes re-signed Davenport again. Unfortunately, he was not able to stay healthy enough to help the defense in 2025.

This year, Payton Turner was not able to showcase why the team signed him, as a back injury forced him to miss the majority of training camp.

To make matters worse, free agents Christian Izien, Cade Mays and Isiah Pacheco are now dealing with injuries that will keep them aways from practice before the start of the season.

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