What goes into the decision to trade up in the draft?

How important is maintaining a good offensive line?

Holmes is a firm believer the game is won in the trenches and maintaining talent and adding depth to the offensive line is always going to be a priority.

“It’s hard to overlook,” he said. “I don’t care who you got at quarterback. I don’t care if you’ve got more of a pocket guy or a scrambler. I don’t care what it is. Offensive line is critical and if you don’t have one it can make life hard in a lot of areas.”

He feels really good about the offensive line after adding Pro Bowler Kevin Zeitler and re-signing Graham Glasgow in free agency, and said if they do add to that group in the draft it’s going to be hard for them to crack the starting lineup.

Will the draft being in Detroit affect a potential decision to move back out of the first round from pick No. 29?

Holmes is going to do what’s best for the organization and if it makes sense to move back and gain assets, he will.

“Say that happens where the fans have been waiting there all night for this pick and we get an offer we really can’t turn down and makes sense we have to do the right thing,” Holmes said. “Hopefully, our fans will forgive us.”

Holmes doesn’t expect immediate forgiveness right then and there, but hopefully when the season starts and the player(s) they moved back and selected are having an impact everything will be forgiven.

How might the change in kickoff rules affect some of the pre-draft evaluations?

Holmes said he’s still in the exploratory phase in terms of a personnel standpoint of how the rule changes might affect that play. He said they might be looking for a different kind of returner than they have in the past and maybe different kinds of body types on kickoff and coverage teams.

“We’ve had a lot of discussions on that,” he said. “Obviously, you guys know special teams is a high priority here. I have all the faith in Dan and (special teams coordinator Dave) Fipp that we’ll have the right guys.”