Lions GM Holmes: ‘I never inquired’ about trade for 49ers QB Trey Lance
Brad Holmes was active in trying to improve his roster at this week’s cut to 53 players, but the Detroit Lions general manager denied a report that the Lions were among the teams interested in trading for former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Trey Lance.
“I never reached out, I never inquired about the player or anything,” Holmes said Friday. “The report was us and some other teams were, like, in that group of being interested, but I never actively pursued the player, so I can’t speak to the accuracy of those reports.”
The Athletic reported Aug. 26 the Lions were one of at least four teams who “showed interest” in Lance, the No. 3 pick in the 2021 draft who eventually was traded to the Dallas Cowboys this week.
The Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens also had conversations with the 49ers about a trade, according to the report.
Lance was considered a raw prospect with high upside coming out of North Dakota State in the 2021 draft, following an NCAA season disrupted by COVID-19. He made his NFL debut against the Lions that fall, but missed most of his rookie season with a sprained knee.
Last year, Lance won the starting quarterback job in training camp but suffered a season-ending ankle injury in Week 2.
The 49ers demoted Lance to third string, behind Brock Purdy and Sam Darnold, before trading him last week.
The Lions signed Teddy Bridgewater to be Jared Goff’s backup earlier this year, but lost third-string quarterback Nate Sudfeld to a torn ACL the day before Lance’s trade.
The Lions also reportedly tried to trade for
a kicker at this week’s roster cuts before giving the job to Riley Patterson.
“It’s always my job to turn over every stone. There’s so many players that are discussed within the league that aren’t reported on, interest here or there,” Holmes said. “We’re always going to look to upgrade the roster at any point, but if it’s something that’s real active and reached out, we didn’t.”
Holmes said he feels “good” about Patterson at kicker, though he referred to Patterson as the kicker who will “start us off.” The Lions also signed Michael Badgley to the practice squad.
“He’s had his moments this training camp where you would have liked to be a little more consistently, but what I know about Riley is
he’s got a very low heart rate when it comes to game time,” Holmes said.
“His confidence is high, so I’m not too concerned because I know who he is as a person, so hope for the best. You kind of saw the kick in Carolina where it was probably a little bit outside of his range of kind of what he normally is. But within his range, just look at the data on him in games and critical situations, he’s been pretty good.”
Patterson missed a 53-yard field goal short off the crossbar and an extra point wide left in the Lions’ final exhibition game against the Panthers.