LIONS EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER BRAD HOLMES DRAFT DAY 2 QUOTE SHEET

Opening Statement: “Again, I hate to sound like a broken record, but again thrilled with how it fell tonight. Obviously (Lions CB) Ennis (Rakestraw Jr.) was a guy we had ranked very, very high. He’s another one that we didn’t think he was going to make it that far. We didn’t even know if he was going to make it out of really the first night. But when he was still there starting today, I didn’t think he was going to last that long. But just – we were actually trying to get up, but we were just so far down. A lot of people don’t really want to trade that far down, so we just kind of stayed pat. We were just thrilled that he landed there. He had some medical stuff he had to go through last season, and he battled it throughout the whole spring process as well. So, I think that kind of set him back a little bit too, but just thrilled how it panned out.”

On what the competition will look like at cornerback after loading up at the position this offseason: “Yeah, it’s a bloodbath in there now. It is, and that’s what makes everything better. It makes the room better, it makes the defense better, it makes the team better. Competition just brings the best out of everybody. And look, it’s something that – we didn’t go into it saying that we were going to get two corners in the first two rounds. We really didn’t, it was just he was the highest-graded guy for us at the time. We went ahead, and you know how we roll. We went ahead and got him. But those were also our top-two ranked corners as well. And you know, look, it’s an all-things-considered process, not just stats and highlights. It’s a lot of things that are involved in those rankings. But we’re just thrilled because they’re all the same in terms of they both fit us like a glove. They’re both gritty, physical, challenge-mentality kind of guys. They can press. I know I talked a lot about (Lions CB) Terrion (Arnold) yesterday but sticking on (Lions CB) Ennis (Rakestraw Jr.), a guy that – saw him on film at first and thought he was going to be a lot smaller. He was thinner the year before, but when I saw him at the LSU game, Mizzou-LSU game, his frame looked good. He looked like a guy that can play outside and survive and then you see how he is in the run game, and now you get up and face some really good receivers in the SEC. But yeah, just thrilled how it fell through.”

On if Lions second-round draft selection CB Ennis Rakestraw Jr. was high up on their board when they tried to trade up: “Yeah, it just wasn’t a lot of guys that we had that highly ranked. It was really just a couple of guys that we had up there where they would’ve been possible considerations at 29. So, it was a couple of those guys so we were trying to get one of them. One of them went, and then Ennis was still there, so we went ahead and got him. Again, we don’t really care the position it’s just we take the best player. It just so happens that setup. Again, it’s something that we’ve always been trying to find that future at that position, and it just never really matched up. It never really lined up. We weren’t in a position to get one or we just had a better player at another position ranked over that – another corner. It’s not anything that we’ve been ignoring or anything, it just really hadn’t been lined up. We’re not going to reach for a corner just to get a corner either. But yeah, super ecstatic that we finally got some future and youth at that position.”

On Lions CBs Terrion Arnold and Ennis Rakestraw Jr. being on the same Top 30 visit together and what stood out about them off-the-field: “Yeah, so first of all, going to Terrion I know we talked about just the personality and just big energy, big personality, very, very confident. Ennis is actually different. You feel the confidence. Me and (Lions Head Coach) Dan (Campbell) sitting there and talking to him, I just kind of felt ‘dog’ exuding out of him, just a lot more quiet, just kind of to the point and to the business, not as loud and vocal and vivid personality like Terrion was. And again, that’s how all these kids are. There’s – it’s actually a really fun process where all of them are asked a lot of the same questions and you get these different answers. They’re all different personalities. But Terrion and Ennis, both of them you really felt like, ‘OK, these guys fit who we’re about. These guys fit our culture.’ But it was something about Ennis, just the competitiveness, the drive, how he talked about his story, how he talked about his process, how he talks about just the details of ever since he came out of high school out in Texas and just the whole recruiting process and how when he got to Missouri, his whole thing about these receivers that he’s been up against in the past going against (Steelers WR George) Pickens. All these things that I was just like, ‘Man, this guy’s about one of the more competitive kids just talking with him.’ So, it’s not only that I felt a competitive dog out of him, but he was speaking it too and his tape shows the same thing.”

On not taking prospects out to Top Golf like the Washington Commanders: “No, it probably would’ve been a good little tournament though.”

On if there was a self-scout process within the defense that identified certain characteristics they wanted their offseason secondary additions to have: “Yeah, me and (Lions Defensive Coordinator Aaron Glenn) AG have had conversations about that. Again, really open and transparent conversations just about what the process has been about kind of really solidifying that position. But I know exactly what we want it to look like. Often what we were – when I was in L.A. with the Rams and playing against when (Lions Head Coach) Dan (Campbell) and AG were with the Saints, I actually thought of them as one of the more suffocating defenses that we went against. Just everything felt very tight and suffocating and sticky. It was just a lot of just – it was hard to find separation. Going against that kind of defense, I had a really good feel for what Dan and AG kind of wanted that defense to be like. That’s what we’ve been striving for. Look, we had a lot of work to do on defense. Like I told you guys back maybe around Owners Meetings, there was maybe a little less work to do with some of the offensive linemen that we had in place when we got here, but defense was a complete start-over basically. So, we just have been kind of doing it brick-by-brick, but again we’re not going to reach on a position. We’re not going to just draft a corner just because he plays corner. No, it’s got to be the right football player. So, it just so happened that this year (Lions CB) Terrion (Arnold) was the right football player. (Lions CB) Ennis (Rakestraw Jr.) was the right football player, he just happened to play the corner position.”

On if the team wrestles with doubling up at a certain position when they have needs at other positions too: “No, I really don’t. Yeah, I mean you look at it, and you probably wouldn’t draft seven corners. You probably won’t do that, but the board probably wouldn’t be shaped like that. At some point, there’s going to be another player at another position that’s probably ranked higher. But eventually, yeah, it probably hits a maximum, but we were kind of lacking some youth – especially on the outside there. That’s why it lined up. Again, it’s hard for us, it’s hard for me and (Lions Head Coach) Dan (Campbell), it’s hard for our staff, to have a guy that’s a really good football player that fits for us and you say, ‘Ah, no, we already took at that position. Let’s get this other player. He’s not as good as this player at this position, let’s get another player at another position that’s not as good because he plays another position or a player that we’re not that fired up about, but he plays another position.’ It’s hard to sleep at night, to do that. That’s how we’ve operated so far to this point and that’s what we’ll keep doing.”

On the value of drafting players who have overcome adversity on the field: “That’s huge, and that’s something that’s really, very important to us when we’re talking to these prospects about telling us about adverse moments. The way they answer that question, some of it is football related, some of it is life-related. But I think that’s a very important and critical factor that plays in the success of a lot of these players because when you get to this level, it’s hard. You can have a lot of success in college, but it's hard up here. The competition is different, the grind, all the standards – it’s hard. It’s pressure. So, sometimes you can just have some days where you might not feel like doing that extra (work), you get late in the season, ‘Man, I’ve got to get up early again and go to the weight room and get treatment.’ It gets hard. Guys that will grind through and persevere – grit’s all over this place. The adversity piece is a big deal for us and a lot of the guys that we’ve acquired, they’ve had good stories about persevering through.”

On the logjam at the cornerback position: “Why do you call it a logjam? It’s healthy competition.”

On if there is a cornerback on the roster that he envisions moving inside: “Terrion (Arnold) has played inside and out, Ennis (Rakestraw Jr.) has played inside and out. It’s funny you brought that up. Me and (Lions Head Coach) Dan (Campbell) were talking this morning, or early afternoon, about the potential of another corner being the best player and us taking another corner. We talked about that. We didn’t know it was going to happen, but we talked about that, and we know that these guys were – it’s not just, ‘Oh, we’ve got outside corner.’ No, they’re DBs. Like, they’re DBs – they’re versatile. They can play outside, they can play inside. These guys can play special teams if they’re not starting or playing. That’s the beauty of all of it. There’s guys that we thought could play nickel and safety, and it’s like, ‘No, we have a safety, we have a nickel,’ but there’s nothing wrong with adding another one. The versatility component is big for us and it’s kind of the approach that it was last year too, when we got E-Man (Emmanuel Moseley) and (Cam) Sutton and CJ (Gardner-Johnson) and all those guys. It wasn’t about just fitting those DBs in boxes, it was just the versatility in getting smart, gritty DBs.”

On what intrigued him about bringing in Passing Game Coordinator/Defensive Backs Deshea Townsend and newly-selected CBs Terrion Arnold and Ennis Rakestraw Jr.: “Well, obviously got a lot of respect for Deshea in terms of I know he was a good player in the League, has been coaching a lot in this League. I used to see Deshea at pro days a lot. I’ve never worked with him, but you can kind of tell the passion a coach has, how much he puts into that drill-work, and how he works with those kids. So, I’ve always had a lot of respect for him from afar. A lot of places he’s (gone), he’s shown that he can develop DBs and put out good DB play. But to get Townsend and then get these two corners, which again, those were our top-ranked guys, it was kind of the perfect storm that just all came together. It doesn’t always line up that way. Obviously, we could have gone with other positions that you guys have rattled off in the past, but it just happened to work that way. I think Deshea was telling me that he still wanted some more. You said logjam, but he was still asking for some more.”

On if he can explain the meaning of his ‘Positional Villain’ hoodie: “I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever released kind of what villain really means, so we’ll still keep that in-house. Just the positional part – I got hit with positional value last year. It’s just a little spin on it.”

On the uniqueness of the long gap between picks and if he is willing to use future assets to trade back up: “I’ll consider anything if the player’s right. It’s funny – going into today, I kind of went into today thinking we’re just going to sit there at No. 61 and stay pat and see what falls to us, but we were actually making calls trying to get up into the high 30s and 40s. I kind of woke up with kind of an aggressive mindset and there were some dudes still up there that we really liked and we were just trying to get them. But then you’ve also got to look at, OK, these resources that you allocate to move up and the future capital and all that, we also have meetings about, ‘OK, what’s that going to look like when this time comes next year?’ Or ‘What’s that going to affect what we might have to do in the future?’ I try to be very, very mindful of not being a prisoner of the moment, and it seems like every single year there’s going to be a Day Two Darling that you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I really want (him),’ and sometimes you’ve got to catch yourself. Last year, it was (Sam) LaPorta. It’s always going to be that personnel – we had that pick to acquire him, but you’ve got to just be disciplined from that standpoint and kind of go through the consequences if there are any for what those move-ups can mean for the future.”

On if he has someone in the draft room keeping him in check on potential moves: “There’s really not some specific get-back person, but the communication and dialogue of our internal group is very healthy and it helps put a lot because someone might point something out about, ‘Well, if this happens, if you do this, than this, that, that, that and that could come about.’ Some things that I’ve already thought about, but I’ve come to peace with, and I say, ‘Yeah, I get it, but let’s go ahead and do it because it’s for the betterment of the now and we can survive in the future.’ Or sometimes it’s a point that’s brought up that says, ‘That’s going to hurt us too much in the future.’ You guys have heard me talk about the marshmallow experiment, so sometimes you’ve got to just embrace that delayed gratification a little bit.”

On if the hoodies were his idea for the draft room: “You think this would be my idea? I can’t tell everything. We are looking for villains, but I got tipped off on what positional value was. I didn’t know what that was. I didn’t know what it was, so when you guys showed me, I was like, ‘Oh, wow.’ And then I thought about it, and I was like, ‘Positional value is like – so you pick a position but not the player.’ I was thinking like, ‘No, you’re looking for football players.’ So, you’re looking for these guys. But it doesn’t matter, so it’s more positional villain.”

On him not hearing the term ‘positional value’ before: “No, I haven’t. I mean I understand the term, like, ‘Oh, well you want to get a quarterback over whatever.’ Like, I understand that, but I didn’t know that it was a thing where you would draft a position regardless of the player, because I think that’s very easy. Just like I talked about it with free agency in the spring. You can win the headlines in March and April and all that stuff. That’s easy to draft whatever the premium positions are – quarterback and edge rusher and tackle and those positions. Say you draft only those positions, but they’re not contributing to your football team. So, did you win the Draft? Did you win the Draft because you drafted those positions? But they’re not contributing to your football team. Or do you draft the best football players that contribute to your football team that make you a better football team? We’re trying to draft football players that contribute and make us a better football team versus just those. When I heard it in that light, just, ‘Draft this position,’ that’s the part that I really couldn’t come to grips with. I really didn’t understand it.”
 

LIONS SECOND-ROUND DRAFT SELECTION (NO. 61 OVERALL) CB ENNIS RAKESTRAW DRAFT DAY 2 QUOTE SHEET

On the emotions he and his family are feeling after getting drafted and how surprised he was that the Lions picked him after picking Lions CB Terrion Arnold in the first round: “The first part of the question, my emotions were all over the place because I didn’t know what to expect. Everybody waits for the phone call to be made. So, it was just a lot of waiting anxious and watching players go by, just really anxious. So, I was extremely proud and grateful for the moment. I’m glad I got to talk to (Lions Head) Coach (Dan Campbell). I got an understanding. The Arnold situation, me and Arnold actually were on our Top 30 visit together, so it was great to actually get to know him a little bit better now because he seems like a cool dude, chill dude who can – and his drive and determination are what the Lions want and I feel like my drive and determination are what they want as well. So, we’re just trying to get to work as soon as possible.”

On how he and Lions CB Terrion Arnold were paired together on their Top 30 Visit and how they interacted with each other that day: “My vision, I didn’t know Arnold was there until I got in the car. And, obviously, you know we’re SEC guys, so SEC knows each other a lot, so we were talking. I saw him at the Combine. We chopped it up at the Combine and when we were there it was just a lot of laughs. We – at that point, this was a journey. It wasn’t our final destination, but we just enjoyed it and every moment of that.”

On what he looks forward to learning from Lions CBs Emmanuel Moseley and Carlton Davis III: “Everything as possible, anything that they can help me with as a player because they’re vets. Those guys have been there, done that. They’re good at what they do, so I just have to learn as much from them as possible and apply it to my game.”

On how he describes his game as a cornerback: “I call myself the ‘Tone-setter.’ My defense used to call me the firecracker of the team, because yeah, I’m a corner, but I’ll come up and set that edge. I’ll hit you like a linebacker and I just let my presence be felt every play that I’m out there.”

On if he pegged himself as a fit for the Lions and how his perspective changed after Lions CB Terrion Arnold was selected in the first round: “Yeah, it was up in the air. And during the process I thought – it was just one of my visits with them and I liked how (Lions Head) Coach (Dan Campbell) is, Coach Campbell, his philosophy and the (Lions Defensive) Coordinator (Aaron Glenn)’s philosophy about physicality. I feel like that’s what I brought, so I felt like it was a great fit. Terrion, I didn’t think he would fall that low in the Draft, so it was kind of crazy to see, but they picked up a great corner and I’m just happy to be a part of it. So, I was kind of shocked that they picked me, but now I’ve got to make them right.”

On the value of having Lions Defensive Coordinator Aaron Glenn and Lions Passing Game Coordinator/Defensive Backs Coach Deshea Townsend as his teachers: “I feel like that will elevate my game a lot more than it’s already been because they’ve been there, done that. And they’re – they’re player-coaches. All of them in the building, when I walked around, that was one unique thing that I saw in the Lions organization, there’s a whole bunch of talented coaches who once were players, so they know the ins and outs of both worlds.”

On how much pride he takes in being able to leave the Missouri football team better than when he first arrived: “That was the whole goal for me. I decided to go to Missouri – the reason I went there is because I wanted to go to a program that wasn’t already built up. My high school wasn’t already built up, so I just went back on my training. We worked hard, we showed grit and then my senior year, my last two years of high school, we turned it around. I’m happy I got the job done in Missouri. I was just one small piece. I wasn’t the main piece, we all were the main pieces. We all split it all even. We bled together, we sweat and we almost passed that on stadiums together, so that was a team effort.”

On if he had been to Detroit prior to his Top 30 Visit and what he knows about the city: “That was my first time actually being in Detroit. I’m a guy where I grew up kind of like we never traveled, we never left the state. The only time that I left the state was during football, so that was my first time actually seeing it. But now that I’m a Lion, I guess I can explore the city a lot more now.”

On the pair he thinks he and Lions CB Terrion Arnold can be for the future: “A force to be reckoned with. We’re going to fit the culture. We’re going to leave it like how we found – better than we found it, or even as much as we found it. They’ve already established their DNA which was – almost close to being in the Super Bowl. It’s already there, we’re just happy to learn from those guys and keep the train moving.”

On how much he needs to work on his ball skills to earn more interceptions than the one he had in his collegiate career: “You’re never a complete player, so you can always work on everything. For me, ball skills are – I had one interception, so you can say that’s not ball skills, but the PBUs that I make, you can tell that I’m judging the ball. Some of the passes in the air, you still have to judge it. There’s never been a time where I jumped too early or anything. It’s just me needing to be on the jugs a little bit more. Some of my PBUs could’ve been interceptions when I watched film so just fixing my technique and staying sharp. And as I do that, I feel like I’m going to have more interceptions. I’m going to be more effective in the League than when they ask me for the game that I was in college because now I know exactly what I need to work on, and I’ve been working with a trainer who has been helping me with my movements.”

On at what point he knew he had what it took to make it in the NFL and how much motivation he still carries with himself going back to that time: “So, going into my senior year, I wasn’t let in the Under Armour All-American Camp. I was at the gate, Coach was supposed to let me in, but then he came back and said some of the guys said I don’t look like a Power Five athlete because I was so small. I called my mom, my mom picked me up. I cried in the car, and I put an oath to myself that for the rest of this year, every four or five-star I face is going to feel me and I’m going to show them I’m that type of guy. And I did that and got to this point. There’s always going to be a chip on my shoulder, I was born with it.”

On what goes through his mind when he is on an island guarding a wide receiver: “It’s me versus you, who wants to win, my family is on the line and all the stuff that they talk you up about, that’s not me. You have to show them.”

On how he felt after being turned away from the Under Amour All-American Camp: “OK, so, I actually was in Lawrence – I was in, yeah, University of Kansas on an unofficial visit. One of my teammates had an offer, but I went because they showed that they had interest in me. We got the call from my coach and said that they wanted both of us to go to the Under Armour All-American Camp, so we drove back that night straight there, so that’s probably like four hours away. I got there, they turned me around, so it was kind of like, ‘Man, we drove all the way here and he’s the only one that got to go.’ So, I felt like it was a slap in my face and showed me that I needed to work a little bit harder because nobody believed in me. In the offseason, I just worked a day of extra reps. I just changed my whole mentality of a player.”

On how he changed in order to be considered a top prospect after being turned away from the Under Armour All-American Camp: “See, I was always a smaller guy, so I was like 139 pounds. My senior year, I was like 150-154 pounds, so I got a little bit bigger. But it really was just – I was the number one corner at my school now, so I’m – obviously, Texas has the best football, 6A. I had to guard some top receivers who even were draft picks or five-stars, player of the years and I shut them down and I feel like that’s when I started getting my credit and people started turning on the tape and actually knew that I was good besides looking at my size and just writing me off.”

On if he feels that people still write him off or if he has silenced most of his doubters: “I feel that I’m where I’m supposed to be in the Draft. Through my process, or whatever, I feel like I could have (gone) a lot earlier, but I can’t look at it that way. I’m in the best fit for me as possible. So, I’m going to just prove the Lions right and everybody else wrong.”