Latest mock trades for Lions would make Brad Holmes hang up the phone

Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes is likely all too aware of the cap situation about to beset the team after 2025. The team has to figure out how to pay some pretty significant talent like D.J. Reader, Alex Anzalone, Levi Onwuzurike, and Amik Robertson, amongst others.

That's likely why Holmes hasn't gone out of his way to make any huge trades this offseason, even as several stars like Trey Hendrickson and Micah Parsons have become available on the market for the right price. It isn't feasible to trade for pass rushe rs like them, when the whole reason they've become available is because they aren't getting paid by their respective teams.

That said, smaller deals like for players who haven't carved out a concrete role with the team are totally plausible - but, in a new mock trade for every NFL team published by Alex Kay of Bleacher Report, the Lions trade both Tim Patrick and Hendon Hooker for 7th round picks - not exactly lucrative, and not exactly worth the hassle of parting ways with potentially key depth pieces.

Latest mock trades leave Lions with not much to work with

In Kay's write up, he has Patrick landing with the wide receiver-needy Buffalo Bills in exchange for their 2026 7th rounder. Kay wrote, "While the 31-year-old has had injury issues of his own, he's coming off a prom ising season with the Lions. Patrick likely wouldn't cost the cash-strapped Bills much, as Detroit has a logjam in the receiving corps and might be willing to move on from Patrick for cheap."

As for Hooker, Kay suggests his best landing spot right now to be with the Los Angeles Rams for a 7th rounder as Matthew Stafford's mysterious back injury continues to linger in the background.

"Los Angeles needs depth after Matt Stafford missed an extended amount of the preseason with injury. He's also in the twilight of his career and has mulled retirement previously, but there's no real heir in place at the moment. Jettisoning fellow aging quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and getting Hooker into head coach Sean McVay's system now would allow the team to evaluate his potential as a long-term option," wrote Kay.

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Two 7th rounders are not the most groundbreaking picks on paper for Detroit to get back for these two players. Patrick is still, as of now, the teams' WR3. Isaac TeSlaa threatens to dethrone him there, but Patrick would need multiple poor outings or further injury woes to fully push him out of that spot on the Lions' depth chart.

As for Hooker, he's the Lions' project pick that they're still looking to develop. Hooker will be getting the start against the Houston Texans on Saturday in the Lions' final preseason bout, and if he can piece together a solid performance there, it's within the realm of possibility that Detroit carries three quarterbacks in to the season instead of two.

If the offer is only 7th rounders for these two respective players, expect Holmes to simply not pick up the phone.

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