Brad Holmes (born July 29, 1979) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

executive who is the

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

and executive vice president for the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). Holmes previously served with the

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The Rams play ...

in various executive roles from 2003 to 2020.

Education and playing career

Holmes attended George D. Chamberlain High School in

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...

, where he was captain of the football team, and was also elected homecoming king. Holmes graduated

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

from

North Carolina A&T North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (also known as North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina A&T, N.C. A&T, or simply A&T) is a public, historically black land-grant research university in Greensboro, North Caro ...

in 2002 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in Journalism and Mass Communications, and was a four-year

letterman Letterman may refer to: * Letterman (sports), a classification of high school or college athlete in the United States People * David Letterman (born 1947), American television talk show host ** ''Late Night with David Letterman'', talk show that ...

for the Aggies at

defensive tackle A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that will typically line up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the offensive guards, however he may also line up opposite one of the tackles. Defensive tackles are typically the la ...

under head coach Bill Hayes. In 1999, he was voted team captain and helped A&T win the

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose full members are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern and the Mid-Atlantic United States. It participates in the National C ...

and

Black college football national championship The black college football national championship is a national championship honor that, since 1920, has been regularly bestowed upon the best football teams among historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) within the United States. Histo ...

. While visiting home after the 1999 season, Holmes was involved in a car accident that left him in a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

for a week. After making a full recovery, he was cleared to play his final season of college football in 2001.

Executive career

Early career

Following his playing career, Holmes obtained a job with Enterprise Rent A Car while attempting to begin a career in professional sports. He soon obtained a

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...

internship with the

Atlanta Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Southeast Division (NBA), Sou ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA) in 2002, which he parlayed into a public relations internship with the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arr ...

of the NFL in 2003.

St. Louis / Los Angeles Rams

In 2003, Holmes was hired by the

as a public relations intern. While in St. Louis, Holmes struck up a friendship with

Wilbert Montgomery Wilbert Montgomery (born September 16, 1954) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for nine years with the Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions. He was also the running ...

, a two-time

All-Pro All-Pro is an honor bestowed upon professional American football players that designates the best player at each position during a given season. All-Pro players are typically selected by press organizations, who select an "All-Pro team," a list th ...

running back and the Rams running backs coach from 1997 to 2005. At the conclusion of the public relations internship, Montgomery assisted Holmes in securing a position in the Rams player personnel department. From 2003 to 2012, Holmes served in a number of front office positions with the Rams, including scout, area scout, national Combine scout, and scouting assistant. Since joining the Rams in 2003, Holmes worked under Rams front office executives

Charley Armey Charley Armey (born July 16, 1939) is a former American football coach, scout, and executive. He was an assistant and then interim head coach for the Denver Gold of the United States Football League (USFL) in 1983. He was a scout for the Green Ba ...

, Jay Zygmunt,

Billy Devaney William Joseph Peter Francis Devaney (born March 7, 1955) is a professional American football analyst on ESPN. Prior to that Devaney was a football executive. He was the general manager for the St. Louis Rams of the National Football League from ...

, and

Les Snead Samuel Lester Snead (born January 19, 1971) is an American football executive who is the general manager of the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL), a position he has held since 2012. Prior to joining the Rams in 2012, Snead se ...

. In 2013, Holmes was named the Rams Director of College Scouting. In this role, Holmes was integral in the acquisition of Rams " Mob Squad" Pro Bowlers

Aaron Donald Aaron Charles Donald (born May 23, 1991) is an American football defensive tackle for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Pittsburgh, where he received unanimous All-American honors, and ...

Jared Goff Jared Thomas Goff (born October 14, 1994) is an American football quarterback for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at California, where he set the Pac-12 Conference season records for passing ...

Todd Gurley Todd Jerome Gurley II (born August 3, 1994) is an American former football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for six seasons, primarily with the Los Angeles Rams. He played college football at Georgia, where he recei ...

Cooper Kupp Cooper Douglas Kupp (born June 15, 1993) is an American football wide receiver for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Eastern Washington, where he won the Walter Payton Award as a junior, ...

Pharoh Cooper Pharoh Cooper (born March 7, 1995) is an American football wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at South Carolina, and was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the fourth rou ...

, and

Cory Littleton Cory Littleton (born November 18, 1993) is an American football linebacker for the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Washington. He signed with the Los Angeles Rams as an undrafted free agen ...

Detroit Lions

On January 14, 2021, Holmes was named the executive vice president and general manager of the

. Holmes signed a five-year contract, succeeding prior general manager Bob Quinn. Holmes' first transaction as general manager was trading longtime franchise quarterback

Matthew Stafford John Matthew Stafford (born February 7, 1988) is an American football quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Georgia, where he was a first-team All-American, and was selected f ...

to the

in exchange for two first round picks, a third round pick, and quarterback

Personal life

Holmes is the son of Melvin Holmes, who played offensive line for the

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

from 1971 to 1973. He is also the nephew of former

defensive back

Luther Bradley Luther Alexander Bradley (born May 7, 1955) is a former professional American football player who played four seasons for the Detroit Lions. He later played with the Chicago Blitz, Arizona Wranglers and Houston Gamblers of the USFL. He is the U ...

, a 1978 first-round draft pick. Holmes cousin, Alex Barron, was a first-round pick of the Rams in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

. Holmes is married to his wife, Lisa, and together they have a son, B.J., and a daughter, Lola.

References

External links

Detroit Lions bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holmes, Brad 1979 births Living people Detroit Lions executives St. Louis Rams scouts Los Angeles Rams scouts People from Tampa, Florida North Carolina A&T State University alumni North Carolina A&T Aggies football players Detroit Lions currentteam parameter articles National Football League general managers All Wikipedia articles written in American English Wikipedia pages semi-protected against vandalism African-American sports executives and administrators African-American players of American football 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American sportspeople