How did Detroit Lions' Brad Holmes develop into good GM? We asked his former boss

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — If Amazon is listening, Les Snead has an idea free of charge.

If the brain trust for the online retailer’s video streaming service is looking for a sequel to its recent Barry Sanders documentary, “Bye Bye Barry,” the head of the Los Angeles Rams’ personnel brain trust has a suggestion.

“Barry got one and he deserves one,” the Rams general manager told me recently. “I do think this run, especially if it continues like I would predict, might definitely be the one, if you want to call it from a team standpoint. I don't know what we're gonna name it, but from a team standpoint.”

Snead was talking about the Detroit Lions and the current regime, headed by coach Dan Campbell and, of course, general manager Brad Holmes, who worked for the Rams for 18 seasons, including the last nine under Snead.

As I sat in Snead's office for a 45-minute interview to discuss the excellent job Holmes has done constructing a team that won its first division title in 30 years and will host his Rams on Sunday night in a primetime NFC wild-card game, it was clear Snead is not only a big fan of Holmes’ but also of the Lions and how far they’ve come.

Snead’s modest office inside the Rams' temporary building is large enough to fit his desk, a couch, and two gray, leather chairs. That's where we sat about 10 feet apart as he shared his admiration for Holmes and the Lions in his faint Alabama drawl that doesn’t seem to fit the intensity of a piercing gaze that rarely wanders or the quickness of his thoughts.

“And what's very fascinating is there's so many storylines to us playing the Lions,” he said. “The one personal to me is I’ve been such a fan of theirs for the last three years.”

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And, as any Lions fan can tell you, the membership requirement is pain.

“You know, I can remember going back to when I don't know if it was last year when the Baltimore kicker nailed the (NFL-record 66-yarder),” Snead said. “And I just felt like 'I'm crushed.' I’m like, 'Wait a minute, we’re about to go play our game. Why am I crushed?'”

You’re crushed, I felt like telling Snead, because you dared to become a member of a loyal but rarely rewarded club. You can buy SOL stickers and Blue Kool-Aid in the merch store.

I actually felt sorry for Snead, who willingly did this to himself. And the guy has a Super Bowl ring.

But his perspective is different because GMs are basically oracles who study the rhythms and nuance of the game that no one else quite understands. Even though he doesn’t personally know Lions coach Dan Campbell, he understood him by watching his postgame news conference 2,000 miles away after the heartbreaking 19-17 loss to the Ravens in Week 3 in 2021.

“But you could see them just getting closer, playing good football, even though they weren't necessarily winning games,” he said. “And I know that then all of a sudden somewhere along the way in the second half they turned it on (last year), but you could just see it on Dan's face. Like, he believed that he won it and he was straining and it was like just keep staying together. Keep doing it. You're gonna break through. So it's really cool to have been a fan of theirs.”

Then Snead added this.

“Personally,” he said, “I would say for Brad, for Jared, for Ray.”

That, of course, would be Lions assistant GM Ray Agnew, who also worked under Snead, and quarterback Jared Goff, an instrumental piece in the trade for Matthew Stafford that brought the Rams a Super Bowl and helped deliver the Lions their first division title in 30 years.

Snead isn’t interested in taking credit for Holmes’ success. When I asked if Holmes could be considered the start of his “GM tree,” he smirked and chopped that thing down.

“I guess you would call it — we're in a bush,” he said. “Brad's the first GM, the only one at this point. So I don't know if we've got a tree. But yeah, he would definitely be at the beginning of what I hope is a tree.”

If one thing is clear, it’s that the Holmes bush in Detroit has taken root. Snead and Holmes maintain regular contact, texting about once a month. But even from afar and with limited communication, Snead sees a bit of the Rams’ DNA in the Lions.

“I think the No. 1 thing I would probably say if there was any DNA is you can tell that building’s symbiotic,” he said. “I think if there was anything we've done here, is this building's very symbiotic, works well together, collaborates well together, right?

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“The goal’s to have a competent collective. So again watching them do their business from afar — can’t say I'm in that building — but there is a vibe that comes out of there, right? Brad, Ray, front-office personnel, it’s on the same page with Dan. Coaching staff’s probably on the same page with all the other departments that touch the football players.”

But Holmes’ success, Snead clearly emphasized, is his own.

“And he's done it right in a model way,” he said. “You take over a franchise like that, when you get a job like that the stock's down for whatever reason.

“And not only do you help increase the stock price, it seems like that thing, boy they have a foundation that seems very, very sustainable. And it's only gonna compound and the dividends over the next few years ought to be pretty fun.”

To torture the financial analogy just a bit longer, there’s no better example of Holmes investing in the ultimate startup than by using a fourth-round pick Amon-Ra St. Brown, the newly minted All-Pro who ran right into Holmes’ arms after he clocked a slow 40-yard dash at the combine.

But Snead has his equivalent: Pro Bowl rookie receiver Puka Nacua, who dealt with injuries in college and also ran a slow 40 before Snead snagged him in the fifth round. When I asked who was winning the “steal of the draft” contest between them, Snead deferred again.

“Give Brad the tiebreaker right now,” he said, “because Amon-Ra’s done it for more years than Puka.”

More than the statistical excellence he sees in St. Brown and Nacua, Snead says they embody the same mindset of tough-minded, consistent dedication that he also sees throughout the Lions’ roster.

“What's cool about it is that those kids are definitions of let's call it ‘football players,’” he said. “They're warriors.”

The Rams have a first-ballot Hall of Famer in Aaron Donald and two other elite, established stars in Stafford and Cooper Kupp. Lions players are just starting to garner those accolades. St. Brown is approaching that status, but for now, they don’t have an elite, dominant player on the same level as Donald, or Calvin Johnson, and Ndamukong Suh.

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“Hopefully he doesn't play this week,” Snead said the Lions’ absent iconic star. “That's good for us. I'm selfish. I want to beat Brad, or the Lions, but point being (Sam) LaPorta is the definition of that, Aidan Hutchinson's the definition of, they are football players. They play the game, they know the nuances of it, the geometry of it.”

When it comes to the shapes and orientation of a football field on game day, Snead prefers to avoid the glad-handing. He doesn’t work the room. But he will break his rule on Sunday to make sure he sees Holmes and Agnew and even team president Rod Wood, who he worked with during Holmes’ hiring process. St. Brown vs. Nacua? Holmes vs. Snead? No, not this game.

“I always go, ‘It's a team sport,’” he said. “So Rams beating Detroit's gonna be more fulfilling than if you tell me I did better than Brad with Puka.

“So that's what it is, not me versus Brad, for sure. We're sitting in a suite somewhere a long way from really what's going on.”

From his perch at Ford Field, Snead will join close to 70,000 people who will also watch the Lions’ new story unfold, perhaps in a manner that is worthy of its own documentary someday. As for what it should be called, that’s easy actually. Because what makes more sense than following “Bye Bye Barry” with “Hello, Brad and Dan?”

Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Exclusive: Rams GM Les Snead big fan of Detroit Lions' rebuild