Brad Holmes made navigating the 2023 NFL Draft look easy

Brad Holmes, the general manager of the Detroit Lions, provided the writing on the wall for how the team—locked, stocked, and loaded with five picks in the top 81 selections—would take on the 2023 NFL Draft all the way back in 2021.

“Get the best football player,” Holmes said in regards to his goals for Day 2 of the 2021 NFL Draft.

Entering his third season as general manager of the Lions, Holmes has been true to who he is through the draft process, unrelenting in a strategy he outlined after Day 1 of the 2021 NFL Draft.

“We’re not going to anchor ourselves or pigeonhole ourselves into, ‘We’ve got to get this position or that position.’” Holmes said. “If it’s another offensive lineman that’s a…