The Detroit Lions underwent some serious changes during the offseason, both on the field and in the front office. Among the several new faces in the Motor City include general manager Brad Holmes, who has been tasked with undoing the stale nature of the team that lingered from the Bob Quinn era.
There have been several roster moves in recent days, and while speaking alongside new head coach Dan Campbell on Thursday afternoon, spoke about what he feels are the strengths of his team’s defensive line – notably talking up draft selections Levi Onwuzurike and Alim McNeill.
“I love where we’re at up front, heading into it,” Holmes said. “We knew coming down to it that we would be relatively deep there. Obviously, with the development — and, again, credit to the coaching staff — and how quickly Alim McNeill got developed, how Levi when he was able to get back out there more he just kept getting better each week and each game it showed up. When you draft these guys and they’re rookies, you hope that they can contribute, but you don’t know how quickly they can get acclimated.
“Alim actually earning a starting role for us, then Levi seems like he’s gonna be a contributor for us, at this point. So, we feel good.”
The pair of picks are also joined by Michael Brockers, Kevin Strong, Nick Williams and John Penisini on the new edition of the Lions, adding to the confidence that the new leadership regime has.
“Then, the other guys. Brockers, we know what Brockers is as a veteran presence. We feel good about the direction that he’s headed, headed into Week 1,” Holmes said. “You’ve got guys like Kevin Strong, had a good camp. John Penisini, he’s been a solid rotational contributor at the nose tackle position. Even Jashon, when he’s able to come back. We felt really good about it. We knew it’s a deep group, but we knew that we might have had some tough decisions that were good football players for somebody else.”
– – Quotes via MLive Link – –
