Why Lions GM Brad Holmes is confident in team’s wide receivers group

Despite losing Josh Reynolds. Lions GM Brad Holmes explained why he’s confident in the WRs Detroit currently has.

When the Detroit Lions tried—and failed—to re-sign Josh Reynolds in free agency, there was a general feeling that the team would find someone else to replace his production. While Reynolds “only” caught 40 passes for 608 yards and five touchdowns last year, he was also a model player who could play any of the receiver positions in a pinch and had a good rapport with quarterback Jared Goff.

But now weeks after the NFL Draft, the Lions have chosen to do nothing. They haven’t signed a free agent, they didn’t spend any of their draft picks on a receiver, and even their reported undrafted free agent class of rookies only contains two slot receivers.

On Wednesday during a radio appearance on 97.1 The Ticket, Lions general manager Brad Holmes expressed confidence in the wide receiver room.

“We feel good about the group that we have,” Holmes said.

The Lions’ projected starters at the wide receiver position are Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, and Donovan Peoples-Jones. During the radio spot, Holmes specifically pointed to the development of Williams as a reason for confidence.

“We have Jameson Williams, that’s been coming on very, very strong,” Holmes said. “We have high hopes for him. We like where he’s at, at this point. We know that he’s going to continue to get better.”

Last year, Williams produced just 24 catches for 354 yards and two touchdowns, but much of that production came toward the end of the season. From Week 11 to 17, Williams started each game and averaged 2.3 catches and 38 yards per game. For comparison’s sake, Reynolds averaged 2.4 receptions and 35.8 yards per game last season.

Williams clearly displayed growth at the end of the year, showing improvements in route precision and early season drops. After catching just nine of 21 targets in his first nine career games (42.9%), Williams has caught 26 of 39 in the last 12 games (including playoffs for a catch rate of 66.7%. That said, there is still plenty of room for growth. Williams only has a single game with five catches or 60+ yards.

But beyond Williams, Holmes is also hopeful for Peoples-Jones. Last year, Detroit traded a sixth-round pick for the veteran receiver, but he produced just five catches for 58 yards. Detroit opted to re-sign him this offseason, and Holmes believes with more time under this offense, he can do many of the things Reynolds did.

“He was a big-time core player for the Cleveland Browns before we traded for him,” Holmes said. “But we traded for him and the guy comes in late (in the season) and he doesn’t really know the offense. So then you hadn’t really seen Peoples-Jones. We all kinda get into the recency bias of, “What’s Peoples-Jones gonna do?’ No, Peoples-Jones can play. He does provide an element of being able to play on the outside and be a contested-catch guy, being able to do multiple things.”

Finally, Holmes was quick to remind people about 2023 seventh-round pick Antoine Green. While Green only played 106 offensive snaps last season and caught just a single pass, Holmes said he’s seen a ton of development in the 24-year-old receiver in-house.

“We’re really excited about Antoine Green, about how he’s came along,” Holmes said. “He’s another guy that has size, he has speed. He’s a guy that kept getting better and better and better from what we’ve seen throughout the year. I know he didn’t get a ton of targets in games for the world to see, but us being internally with him every single day throughout the season, we really like where he’s going.”

While Holmes professed his confidence in the growth and development of this young group, he also left the door open for the Lions to add another player—particularly if Detroit ends up needing another body during the dog days of training camp.

“That’s not saying that we won’t add. That’s a position that—especially when you get into camp—those guys put a lot of yardage on the field,” Holmes said. “So you always gotta at some point, you need to add a guy here or there when some attrition comes.”