ESPN Says Brad Holmes Has One Job Left Before Tuesday
· Yahoo Sports
The NFL trade deadline arrives Tuesday, Nov. 10 at 4 p.m. ET, and Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes has not made a move yet. ESPN’s deadline tracker has logged eight deals around the league since late September, and none of them involved Detroit. ESPN has already spelled out what the Lions are looking for, and it is the same thing they came up short on earlier this season.
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Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes acknowledges fans during warmups ahead of the game against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. Credit: USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect (Reuters)What Brad Holmes Is Shopping For
Eric Woodyard of ESPN, writing the Lions entry in the network’s 32-team deadline preview, gave one answer for Detroit’s deadline goal: “Adding help to the secondary.”
Woodyard reported that Holmes looks at everything, according to head coach Dan Campbell. “I mean, he’s nonstop,” Campbell said Oct. 30. Woodyard also noted that Detroit was engaged in trade talks for cornerback Joey Porter Jr. earlier this season, before Pittsburgh sent him to the Dallas Cowboys on Sept. 30, and that the Lions could still use an experienced cornerback. The draft capital is there, too: Woodyard wrote that Detroit is projected to have 10 picks in the 2027 NFL Draft.
The same ESPN package pointed at a specific name, listing Miami Dolphins cornerback JuJu Brents as the player Detroit should target, and noted that the secondary has been helped by safeties Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch returning from injury but could still use another corner. Detroit is not the only team hunting there.
The Case for Spending Those Picks on Maxx Crosby
Woodyard did not suggest this one. With as many as 10 picks in 2027, Detroit can do more than add rotational depth, and the name worth a call is Maxx Crosby. A first- and a third-round pick in 2027, plus a first or a second in 2028, is the kind of package that gets the Las Vegas Raiders to pick up the phone about their best defensive player.
There is a real obstacle in the way of it. Adam Schefter reported Nov. 1 that the Raiders are not planning to trade Crosby, that they have not had a single conversation with any team about him this season, and that “Maxx absolutely does not want to leave Las Vegas under any circumstances,” one source told ESPN. Baltimore sent two first-round picks for him in the offseason and the trade was voided when he failed his physical with the Ravens.
That makes a Crosby trade a long shot rather than a rumor. It is still the kind of swing that would tell the fan base something.
Standing Pat Is the One Option That Should Be Off the Table
A safety or a cornerback would help this defense, and Brents or someone like him is the move ESPN sees coming. Doing nothing by 4 p.m. Tuesday would be the worst of the available outcomes. Even a trade that brings back a pass rusher instead of a corner would show the locker room and the fan base that Holmes is trying to win this season rather than hold picks for next spring.