Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes discussed what he sees as strengths of the 2021 NFL draft class on Tuesday.
"I think that the quarterback class is good this year," Holmes said. "I like the crop of quarterbacks that are coming out in this year’s draft. That’s obviously always a very, very important position."
"What’s cool about (quarterbacks) this year is that they’re in all different flavors. You have the guy who can actually do it all, can do it from the pocket, do it with his legs. You have another guy that’s probably a little bit more (the type who) does it with his legs, a little bit more being creative. There’s another guy that actually probably does it more from the pocket. So, all the different flavors make it very, very intriguing in terms of when you’re looking across the whole scope of the class of these quarterbacks."
Holmes also singled out the safety class as a deep group for 2021.
"When you’re picking inside the top 10, I don’t think that there’s a position that you really can look past at any level and say, ‘Oh, well, that’s not a very, very deep position,’" said Holmes. "When you pick inside the top 10, you better know every single position regardless of the circumstances currently on your roster. There’s really not a position that I can sit here and say that I see as thin right now just because in relevance of where we’re picking at, we have to be prepared to know all positions and that’s part of the process that we’re doing now.”
Detroit holds the No. 7 overall pick in the draft. Holmes responded to the mock draft by ESPN's Mel Kiper that included Detroit trading the pick.
“Well, I think Kiper, he’s been doing it for a long time and he has his own opinion of where we should go.”
