Brad Holmes traded up in the 2026 NFL Draft to land tight end Derrick Moore, and the pick is already splitting opinion among scouts and fans who think the Lions overpaid to get there.
Moore’s profile fits Ben Johnson’s offense almost exactly. Johnson has wanted a pass-catching tight end who can threaten the seam and create mismatches against linebackers since he took over the offensive coordinator role. That’s not a secret around league circles, which is part of what drove Detroit to move up the board. Whether that urgency was legitimate or self-inflicted is the question Holmes now has to answer with Moore’s play.
What the Lions gave up
According to the Detroit Free Press, the Lions surrendered future draft capital to climb up in the order. Future picks are easy to spend and hard to replace. The cost won’t sting in 2026, but it compounds. When this core is two or three years deeper into its championship window, depth picks become the margin between a January run and a first-round exit. Holmes knows that math better than anyone.
He’s also earned the right to make calls like this. When Holmes arrived in 2021, the Lions were coming off a 3-13 season that looked less like a rebuild and more like a collapse. The drafts he’s run since then transformed Detroit into a legitimate NFC contender. That track record doesn’t disappear because one trade cost a future pick.
Still, credibility isn’t a blank check.
Reports out of draft weekend indicate there were still tight ends available on the board when Detroit made its move. If Moore was going to slide to the Lions anyway, the trade was unnecessary cost. If he wasn’t, Holmes correctly read the room and paid the right price to avoid getting beaten by another team. Those are two very different outcomes that look identical from the outside until you see a draft board that no longer exists. Holmes told reporters after the pick that the Lions had strong conviction about Moore. “We felt like we had to go get him,” Holmes said.
Moore’s fit on offense
Take the trade cost out of the equation and Moore looks like a clean schematic match. Johnson’s tight ends have to do three things: run precise routes from multiple alignments, hold up as in-line blockers when Detroit’s run game calls for it, and win one-on-one matchups in open space after the catch. Moore can do all three. That’s not common. Most tight end prospects coming out of college programs can handle one or two of those demands, not the full package.
Detroit’s tight end depth lost production this offseason. Moore steps in as the player expected to stabilize that chart, and it’s clear the Lions think his ceiling is higher than a placeholder starter. He can become a featured target in Johnson’s passing attack if the development goes right.
That’s a big if. An NFL playbook asks more of its tight ends than almost any college system does, and Moore’s going to hit a learning curve somewhere in training camp. How steep that curve is will shape his first season in Detroit more than any physical trait. Detroit.co has covered the Lions’ track record of developing young players at skill positions, and that culture is real. It should help Moore.
The bigger picture
Holmes has always built through the Draft rather than around it, and the NFL’s draft value chart doesn’t always capture what a team believes it’s buying when it trades up. If Moore develops into the pass-catching mismatch Johnson’s system is built to weaponize, this trade looks smart within two seasons. If he doesn’t, the Lions will have spent capital they can’t get back during what might be the best window they’ve had in decades.
Detroit’s tight end depth chart does look better on paper today than it did six months ago. Paper doesn’t win anything in January.
