On Wednesday, Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes spoke to the local media for the first time since the team made the decision to cut Terrion Arnold following his arrest in connection with an incident earlier this year that resulted in eight felony charges. It was an opportunity for Holmes to face some criticism on the way the Lions handled Arnold\u2019s situation and built the cornerback room behind him.<\/p>\n
One of the main lingering questions was why the Lions\u2019 opinion on Arnold shifted throughout the process. When his name was first connected to the incident\u2014before his arrest\u2014the Lions organization backed Arnold and his version of the story.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got all the information that says he wasn\u2019t involved,\u201d coach Dan Campbell said during the owners\u2019 meeting in April. \u201cThat\u2019s what we know, that\u2019s all we know, and that\u2019s really all I can say. As far as I know, it\u2019s not a big deal. It seems like he still wasn\u2019t involved with this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lions then opted to waive him days after his arrest. Holmes didn\u2019t offer many details on what changed, simply noting that when they got more information, they made the move they felt was right.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole situation obviously was unfortunate. Look, the kid made a mistake,\u201d Holmes said. \u201cThe more information that we got throughout the process, that was the result of us doing what the best and right thing was for the club, which was: move on and move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other criticism Holmes has faced is not doing enough to plan for this possibility. Detroit knew of the incident back before free agency and the NFL Combine, but it didn\u2019t appear they did much to fortify the outside cornerback room in case Arnold would not be around. They re-signed Rock Ya-Sin and added Roger McCreary in free agency. But the only other notable addition was Keith Abney in the fifth round of the draft, and he\u2019s more of a nickel cornerback.<\/p>\n
Holmes rejected that criticism in a bit of a contentious back-and-forth with a local reporter. Eventually, he offered the following conclusion, essentially backing the players in the building.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe like the guys we have, we like what we\u2019ve done, and we feel good about what\u2019s in the room,\u201d Holmes said.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s in the room is starting cornerback D.J. Reed and Ya-Sin. Holmes stressed his confidence in Ya-Sin, who will step in directly for Arnold this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cRock played really good football for us last year. He\u2019s had a really good camp this year,\u201d Holmes said.<\/p>\n
He also went through the depth players and explains why he\u2019s not particularly worried there, either. With former second-round pick Ennis Rakestraw, he acknowledged an up-and-down training camp, but believes there\u2019s been significant progress, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis health has been better. He\u2019s had a chance to go out there and compete, and he\u2019s gotten better throughout camp,\u201d Holmes said. \u201cHe has a lot of ability. He has a lot of stuff in his body where he can play sticky. I thought his run game stuff improved. He showed that throughout the preseason, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also McCreary, who, while originally tagged as some help in the nickel room, has shown some promise on the outside both prior to his arrival in Detroit and during camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s played a lot of football, both inside and a little bit outside,\u201d Holmes said. \u201cI would actually argue that some of his stuff that he did on the outside\u2014what he did last year on the outside\u2014may have been a little more appealing than what he did inside at his first stop. Really like him.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Holmes\u2019 comments didn\u2019t address or respond to every question and criticism around the Arnold situation, they do finally put some closure on an era that both the Lions and their fans are likely ready to move on from.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Wednesday, Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes spoke to the local media for the first time since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[4992,4993,99],"class_list":["post-834417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-detroit-lions-news","tag-detroit-lions-quotes","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}