ALLEN PARK, Mich. — Brad Holmes didn’t bring any receipts this time. But the Lions’ general manager didn’t come with many regrets, either, other than the obvious one: His team didn’t reach its ultimate goal of winning the Super Bowl.

And while Holmes wasn’t hiding his disappointment after the Lions’ “humbling” playoff exit — the tone of his postseason media session Thursday was a bit less strident than a year ago — he’s clearly not spending his days sitting alone in a dark room cursing his fate.

"I just think that all the pieces are in place,” Holmes said, “that I don't really feel walls closing in.”

Same goes for the Lions’ so-called championship window, which is something the rest of us might see, but Holmes steadfastly refuses to acknowledge.

“Again, we kind of make an effort to avoid those kind of things," he shrugged.

He’s not blind to the reality of the Lions’ situation, or the fans’ frustration, after a record-setting regular season ended abruptly with a divisional playoff loss to Washington last weekend at Ford Field.

“Our fans, once again, showed up and did their part and they (held up) their end of the bargain,” Holmes said. “I wish we could have done more for them.”

'Stay the course'

But frankly, he’s not sure this Lions team and that coaching staff could’ve done much more — rolling to a 15-2 record, a second straight NFC North title and a No. 1 seed — given the hand it was dealt, suffering more significant injuries by far than any other NFL roster.

“On top of all the attrition that we had to deal with, I mean, that’s about as difficult as it gets,” Holmes said of a team that sent more than 20 players — including a half-dozen defensive starters — to injured reserve this season.

That said, the easy thing to do would be to overreact and over-reach this offseason, desperately chasing a final piece to a championship puzzle. The prudent thing would be to stay disciplined and see things for what they are, which is what Holmes intends to do, for obvious reasons.

Honestly, how many NFL GMs wouldn’t trade rosters with him right now? There aren’t many, if any. Not with all that young talent the Lions have developed on both sides of the ball, and an MVP finalist at quarterback in Jared Goff who is “just entering” his prime at age 30, according to Holmes. As head coach Dan Campbell said Monday, “We’ve got players in every pivotal position you can ask for to have success, and those guys are made the right way.”

“Yeah, I think that we just stay the course and just keep building like we’ve been,” Holmes added Thursday, when asked how close he thinks this team is to winning a Super Bowl. “I do think that we’re very close. Obviously, I thought we were very close this year.

“It sucks. It's humbling. But no overreaction. Honestly, there's nothing else to do but get back to work. … You guys have heard me talk about trying to battle recency bias and not being a prisoner of the moment. Look, we just fell short and it wasn't our day. But, no, I don't think you can be a prisoner of the moment and make all these crazy, wholesale changes.”

Changes still coming

That doesn’t mean there won’t be any changes, of course. Already, Campbell’s coaching staff has been raided by other teams, including a division rival in Chicago. With Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn landing head-coaching jobs elsewhere, the Lions will have to replace two coordinators and likely a few assistants as well. But like Campbell, Holmes knew those departures were inevitable — “Let's call it what it is: We were lucky to have both of them this year,” he said — and he has “full faith and trust we're going to have the right people in place in those spots.”

Why? Because he’s confident the Lions have developed an unmistakable identity at this point, and in addition to the draw of winning in Detroit, “most coaches that choose to take a position here — same as a player — I think that they know what they’re about to walk into, in terms of how we play and what our standards are.”

Landing Tampa Bay’s Kacy Rodgers to replace the departing Terrell Williams as defensive line coach is a terrific start, and they might not be done plundering the Bucs' staff, as Larry Foote, a Detroit native, also is expected to interview for the coordinator job here.

There are roster holes to fill, too, and some pending free agents the Lions would like to re-sign, including a homegrown starter in linebacker Derrick Barnes and a couple of key additions from last winter in veteran guard Kevin Zeitler and cornerback Carlton Davis III, though the latter may find more term and money elsewhere.

The Lions do have nearly $60 million in projected cap space for 2025, but they also have another round of contract extensions they’d prefer to handle proactively, starting with edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson — easier said than done — and safety Kerby Joseph. Receiver Jameson Williams is another 2022 draft pick who’s eligible for an extension this offseason, but that one seems more likely to play out into next offseason.

And when outsiders talk about a championship window, that’s a big reason why: That cap space will be hard to come by starting next year. All the more reason, then, for Holmes to hold on to those draft picks rather than follow his mentor Les Snead’s “F--- them picks” lead from the Los Angeles Rams’ Super Bowl run in 2021. (The Lions will own seven picks in April's draft after adding a compensatory third-rounder from Glenn's hiring in New York, courtesy of the NFL's Rooney Rule.)

“We've always said we're going to build through the draft,” said Holmes, who added seven All-Pros or Pro Bowlers and more than a dozen starters in his first three draft classes alone. “And I think that's why we're in the position we're in from a ‘window’ standpoint of having the comfort to keep building like we have been."

That doesn’t mean he’s afraid of trading away picks, as he did back in October when he acquired veteran edge rusher Za’Darius Smith. But if there was a lesson learned this season as Detroit’s defense was decimated by injuries, it’s about the need to double down on the bottom line rather than focus on the top-line items on the roster.

“That's why me and Dan are so heavily concentrated on depth, depth, depth,” said Holmes, who was honored Thursday by the Pro Football Writers Association as NFL Executive of the Year for a second consecutive season. “Even though sometimes it's like, 'Man, why didn't you sign that most expensive free agent?' Well, we're trying to accrue depth, because this kind of stuff happens.”

Stuff happens, all right. And as “bizarre” as some of the Lions’ injury luck was this season, “You can't pout them back to health,” Holmes said. You don’t find many starting-caliber edge rushers available via trade, either, as the Lions' GM discovered. He called the monthlong search following Hutchinson’s devastating leg injury “the most difficult player-acquisition journey that I’ve ever dealt with.”

But the message then is the same one he kept coming back to Thursday: What are you going to do about it? There’s no time for pouting, and no room for pity, in the NFL.

“Literally, there is nothing else to do but get back to work,” Holmes said. “That's what we've been saying since Day 1: It's all about the work. And that's what we'll continue to do."

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