When looking at the current Detroit Lions culture under the leadership of Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes compared to what it was under the dictatorship of Matt Patricia and Bob Quinn, it is like night and day.
When Patricia and Quinn were running the show (or should I say, RUINING the show), it was obvious that players had little to no respect for their head coach and GM and it translated to their play on the field.
Peter King makes ‘good observation' about Brad Holmes' relationship with Lions players
It has been widely reported (maybe even overreported) that the current players on the Detroit Lions love Dan Campbell but according to Peter King of Football Morning in America, the players also love Brad Holmes.
From Football Morning in America:
As a Lions’ May OTA workout finished and 50-some players filed off the field in small groups, player after player came to greet Detroit GM Brad Holmes on the edge of the field. “Bossman!” one said with a big hug. Fifteen, 20 players embraced or bro-hugged or fist-bumped, some stopping for five seconds, some for a minute. This was not the dog days of training camp, or a Wednesday practice with the team on a four-game losing streak, but still it was a little unusual to see this affection for a general manager. PDAs with GMs are not all that common in the world I cover.
“Good observation,” Holmes said when I asked him about it later. “We’ve got a really good group, a group of men who are in this for the right reasons, who really want to win and invest the time in their team. Sometimes we talk about deeper things. I’ll tell them about books I’ve read, lessons I’ve learned. I care about them as people.”
There is no doubt that the Detroit Lions players are happy with Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes. Now, it has to translate into wins on the field.