Detroit's Draft Class Was Considered a 'Flop.' Now It's Fueling the Lions

Detroit Lions General Manager Brad Holmes was looking over his right shoulder when a giddy Dan Campbell, his head coach, started excitedly patting him on the chest. It's April of last year. Detroit higher-ups are gathered in the team's NFL draft war room, and Holmes is pounding the table in celebration after making a pick that shocked the football world.

The Lions broke what at this point is considered a football commandment by drafting a running back—Alabama's Jahmyr Gibbs—in the first round at No. 12 overall. And the surprises continued to mount from there.

Several of Detroit's other selections over the next 24 or so hours turned heads, not exactly in admiration. Iowa linebacker Jack Campbell, also a first-round pick, was widely considered a reach, while fellow Hawkeye Sam LaPorta wasn't the consensus top-rated tight end on the board when Holmes sent his name to be called with the third pick of the second round.

USA Today called the Lions' draft a "flop." Yahoo Sports graded it an "F." Neither of Detroit's top two picks earned above a "C+" from The Ringer.

On Sunday, the long-suffering Lions defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-23 to advance to the franchise's second-ever NFC Championship Game, though the finishing touches on this potentially Super Bowl–bound roster were made nine months ago.

And given Holmes' reaction at the time, the Lions seemed to know it.

"Everyone here," Lions quarterback Jared Goff said Sunday, "was brought here for a reason."

Those reasons were evident enough in the Divisional Round win. Detroit's much-criticized, at least at the time, draft class had its fingerprints all over the 8-point victory at a rowdy Ford Field.

Second-round pick Brian Branch, admittedly a praised selection, sacked Bucs QB Baker Mayfield off of a nickel blitz in the first quarter as Tampa Bay approached the Red Zone. The Buccaneers ended up settling for a field goal on that drive, and Branch finished with a team-leading nine tackles, including two for loss.

LaPorta, who rewrote the rookie tight end record book, caught a Lions-high nine passes for 65 yards on Sunday. And Gibbs, the other top offensive rookie in the Motor City, showcased the big-play ability that caught Detroit's eye with a 31-yard, go-ahead touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.

The result? The franchise's first trip to the NFC title game since the 1991 campaign, and Detroit's third-ever postseason with multiple wins.

"We know what the perception is of being on the Detroit Lions," Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown said Sunday, according to The Athletic. "But we feel that we have a chance to change things—not just for this year but for years to come."

The once-maligned but now-flourishing draft class is helping ensure that happens. But being doubted, as Detroit's draft decisions were, is nothing new for this Lions regime.

Three years ago to the day from Sunday's win, Dan Campbell was introduced as the franchise's head coach. But his kneecap-biting antics were seen as a joke rather than the start of something special. Ahead of the 2021 season, Holmes also brought in—via trade—Goff, a signal-caller who had been written off by the Los Angeles Rams and was widely seen as a short-term starter at the start of a long-term rebuild.

Instead, Goff and company have the Lions on a Super Bowl path.

The team added St. Brown and star defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, as well as other key starters, in the 2021 and 2022 drafts. And just under a year ago, Detroit filled in its remaining missing pieces. Now they're fueling a special run.

Just a few seasons removed from Campbell's opening three-win campaign, the Lions are only a victory away from their first-ever Super Bowl appearance. The Lions laid out their vision. They believed in their trajectory. Now, they travel to San Francisco for a battle with the 49ers and a trip to Super Bowl Sunday on the line.

"I envisioned that we would have a chance to compete with the big boys," Campbell said after Sunday's win, "and that's where we're at."