Even with a disappointing end in the NFC championship game, the Detroit Lions experienced an incredible 2023 season. With a bulk of the team’s roster and staff set to return, expectations will be high for Detroit in 2024.
Lions general manager Brad Holmes wasn’t shy about those potential expectations on February 5. In fact, Holmes may have raised the bar with a message he delivered to the Detroit fan base.
“This is what I want to tell really our fans. Look, it’s only going to get better. We’re only going to get better,” Holmes said in his post-season press conference. “I don’t want anybody to think that this was a one-shot, cinderella, magical journey that just happened. No, it’s real. This is exactly what was supposed to happen.
“Based on history, from what’s happened in the past, I understand that you have a season like this, it’s easy to feel like this was kind of a one-shot, magical, lucky, cute story, which I’m tired of hearing. It was none of that.
“It’s easy to think that, but no. Every move that me and Dan make, it has been made to sustain what we are building. Every single move, and I’ll say every single move we make and every single move we do not make is to sustain what we have been building.
“It’s real.”
GM Brad Holmes Says Lions Are Normalizing Winning
Winning in the NFL is hard, but establishing a high standard is even more difficult. At the end of the day, that’s what Holmes says the Lions are trying to do.
“This is to normalize [winning],” Holmes said on February 5. “Places Dan’s been, it was normalized. Places I’ve been, it’s been normalized. That’s why we’re here. We’re bringing this to normalize what this is right now.”
Holmes added that winning will become the expectation with the Lions. He also said the organization will look to “stick to the plan” and improve each year.
After posting their first winning season with a 9-8 record in 2022, the Lions won 12 games in 2023. It was only the franchise’s second 12-win campaign in its 94-year history.
This past season, the Lions also won a playoff game for the first time since 1991, ending a 9-game postseason losing streak. Furthermore, the Lions won a second playoff game. They hadn’t done that in the same year since 1957.
In 2024, the Lions will look to clinch their first consecutive trips to the postseason since 1994-95.
Lions Will Be Ready for Adversity, Says Holmes
Holmes’ message on February 5 differed from what head coach Dan Campbell has said early this offseason. Campbell stressed, mostly through messages to his players, how much harder it will be to get back to the NFC championship game in 2025.
Holmes didn’t necessarily deny that in his post-season press conference. He admitted that the organization will face new challenges every year.
But he also emphasized that the Lions now have the foundation to overcome those challenges.
“Adversity will always come, but that’s why we’re built on grit,” Holmes said. “We’ll be ready for adversity because it’s going to come regardless. That’s why we’re always preaching grit, grit, grit. That’s what we’re built on.”
Finally, as historic as 2023 was for the Lions, the team will seek to set more record marks next season. Detroit hasn’t finished first in its division in back-to-back seasons since 1953-54.
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GM Brad Holmes Puts Lions Fans on Notice: ‘It’s Real’