The NFL’s free agency period doesn’t kick off until March 17th, but the new Lions regime dropped a serious hint on its approach to free agency this week.
Special assistant to the owner Chris Spielman talked about his philosophy on roster building and free agency during his Tuesday morning guest appearance on 97.1 The Ticket in Detroit. While Spielman isn’t in charge — GM Brad Holmes and senior personnel executive John Dorsey are — it’s wise to consider his views as those shared by the new braintrust.
“I’m sure in free agency, in any philosophy, you can fill in voids in free agency, but you can’t buy a locker room,” Spielman said. “That’s been a philosophy for a lot of teams. Generally, what I believe, you want to build your team through the draft. It’s kinda draft, develop and re-sign. I think that’s hopefully the direction the Lions will take.”
Spielman continued,
“Everybody understands that the most successful teams, usually, build through the draft, get your core nucleus of players and you try to re-sign those guys to a second contract.”
That’s very in-line with Holmes’s background as the director of collegiate scouting for the Rams. That perennial playoff contender was built through the draft and aggressive trades more than free agency.
