Meet Brad Holmes' lieutenant who has helped Lions patchwork roster through unprecedented injury woes in 2024

Detroit Lions director of pro scouting Rob Lohman and his department have had a busier than normal year helping the team plug mid-season roster holes. (Photo courtesy the Detroit Lions)

Allen Park — After the Detroit Lions beat the Bears in Chicago late last month, pro personnel director Rob Lohman waited for the frustrating but familiar text. The one that, in many ways, has defined Detroit’s 2024 season.

But the communication from the team’s locker room never came.

Anxious it might have been sent, only to get chewed up and spit out by the concrete bowels of Solider Field — landing wherever it is all lost texts go — Lohman couldn’t wait any longer, opting to make first contact.

"Does this mean there're no injuries?" he sent.

It’s difficult to read skepticism or cautious optimism in that single line without context, but rest assured, both were woven into the message. With nearly two dozen players on injured reserve, including more than half the team’s starting defense, Lohman has grown as accustomed to bad news emanating from the training room as much as anyone.

This week would offer a welcomed reprieve from the routine of trying to find another player outside the walls of team’s practice facility to urgently fill a void. But Lohman was ready because it’s his job to be.

Surviving changes

Maybe you’ve heard Lohman’s name before, but there’s no shame if you haven’t. Only a fraction of the fanbase knows the makeup of Detroit’s front office beyond Brad Holmes, and an even smaller percentage understand the roles of the people who support the general manager in crafting Detroit’s roster.

Lohman has been with the Lions a long time, more than most. He was hired by Matt Millen in 2007, promoted by Martin Mayhew, retained and elevated to his current role by Bob Quinn, and has managed to stick through the transition to the current regime.

When you unpack Lohman's journey here, to the upper ranks of an NFL front office, it’s filled with the familiar hallmarks of passion, hard work, almost unbelievable connections, and a handful of lucky breaks.

Raised by parents with little interest in sports, Lohman fell in love with them as a kid anyway. But he never had delusions of playing one professionally.

“I like to joke that my first scouting job was looking in the mirror and saying, 'You don't have much of a career playing,’” Lohman said.

Still, he sought an opportunity to turn passion into a profession. As a high school junior, he researched college programs offering degrees in sports management, and when a recruiter from South Carolina’s football program rolled through town, Lohman’s football coach, Frank Luisi, pitched his pupil for a role helping the Gamecocks coaching staff.

After touring the university and earning an academic scholarship, the plan almost unraveled when the coaching staff was fired. But Luisi stepped in and found another connection at the school, helping Lohman earn an opportunity to work as a recruiting assistant.

From there, internships took him back to New York; one with Hofstra University’s football program and another with the NHL’s Islanders. After graduation, Hofstra offered Lohman a full-time position in the recruiting department with one catch — they couldn’t pay him.

So Lohman moved back home, his mom packed him lunch daily, and he made the 20-minute commute. There, the high-level connections started piling up. Hofstra’s recruiting coordinator is current Washington Commanders coach Dan Quinn. The fifth-year senior with no remaining eligibility helping out in the department? That would be Falcons coach Raheem Morris. Additionally, assistant coaches Joe Woods, Dave Brock and Kyle Flood would go on to far bigger jobs.

Lohman was only there a year, but it provided tremendous experience. Not only did he work in recruiting, but he pitched in everywhere he could, from filming practice to serving as an on-field assistant to position coaches.

That led to an opportunity to work as a graduate assistant at Syracuse, coached by Paul Pasqualoni. Yeah, that Paul Pasqualoni, who served as Detroit’s defensive coordinator a few years back. There were a couple other future Lions connections among the GAs, as well. Current assistant outside linebackers coach David Corrao was there, as was former head coach Matt Patricia.

Lohman parlayed his time with Syracuse into another college offer, to lead the recruiting department for some coaching upstart named Urban Meyer at Bowling Green. But Lohman had eyes on going to the NFL. The Houston Texans were getting ready to launch as an expansion franchise, and benefitting from owner Cal McNair being a South Carolina alum, the door opened for an internship with the team in 2001.

Lohman spent six years with the Texans, working as an advance scout for coach Dom Capers — who also ended up with the Lions as a senior assistant in 2021 — before shifting to college scouting.

This takes us to Detroit, where Lohman started in a strange and exhausting hybrid role for Millen.

“I had a weird position that didn't exist anywhere else,” Lohman explained. “I advanced scouted every (pro) game and I had 30 colleges. I was traveling non-stop. I was so worn out by the end of that year.”

The next year, while Lohman was on a college scouting trip to Wisconsin, writing up reports on the Badgers prospects that included future Lions draft pick DeAndre Levy, he took a break for lunch. At the restaurant, he looked up at the TV and caught some breaking news.

“I had left my phone at the hotel and was in the room with two veteran scouts watching film all day,” Lohman said. “Then we go to get lunch and I look up and the scroll said 'Matt Millen: Fired.' Luckily I didn't have my phone that day because I wouldn't have gotten any work done.”

Shortly after Millen's dismissal, Mayhew reorganized the front office and moved Lohman to the pro personnel side. It’s been a steady climb from there, including a promotion to assistant director in 2016 before taking over the department in 2019

(Photo courtesy the Detroit Lions)

Heart of the job

So what does the pro personnel department do?

There are two primary responsibilities during the season, both critical to a team's success.

There’s the advanced scouting component where Lohman’s staff plays an integral role in gathering the initial wave of data on the upcoming opponent to facilitate the formation of that week’s game plan.

“I have a great staff,” Lohman said. “We've been together for six years. Joe Kelleher, assistant director, Justin Licker, pro scout. He came on as a scouting assistant (in 2018), and when I got bumped up, he got bumped up. We obviously know each other really well; good camaraderie, good chemistry. Blake Ask was added last year, but technically this year. He's an assistant pro scout.”

The advanced scouts not only study film but typically attend the upcoming opponent’s game the week before they play Detroit, watching from the press box. This past week and next, the staff will be spread out around the country, consuming all of Detroit’s potential playoff opponents. They turn their notes into a packet that’s presented by Lohman to the coaching staff. The emphasis is on lineup changes, injuries, who is playing well, and who they think might be struggling. It's all critical when trying to determine the matchups to exploit.

“Those guys are a huge resource for us,” coach Dan Campbell said. “They give us the first, I guess, vantage point of what that team is, where they’re at, how they’ve had success, where they’ve struggled, injuries, which is huge. …They give you the jump-start going into the week.

“Those guys have done an unbelievable job for us,” Campbell continued. “They’re very thorough, some of the best that I’ve been around. What I love about them is they give you just the nuts and bolts of what you need. …It’s a huge role to what we do.”

The other component, and one that’s been as critical this year as any, is being ready to add a guy to the roster. Lohman and his staff have a deep knowledge of every player who is a free agent or on another team’s practice squad. They’ve studied their film, written reports, and graded each of them.

During the season, Lohman keeps a thorough database, first sorted by position and further categorized by experience. There are the young players who have been in the league fewer than two years, younger veterans, and a third group, with the most experience but on the back end of their careers.

Lohman obsesses over the database, tweaking the lists daily. Each player who is released by another team, his staff meets on them. Every practice squader who gets elevated and sees snaps, they watch that film and update their reports and grades.

Minutes before we sit down to talk, it’s learned the Washington Commanders are waiving defensive tackle Phidarian Mathis. The former Alabama standout was a second-round pick three years ago. Lohman makes it clear he’ll be checking out the tape shortly after we wrap up.

The next day Mathis is claimed off waivers by the Jets, but it’s reported four teams put in a bid. One of them was Detroit. Lohman's crew must have liked the potential he saw on tape. Plus, it's no secret the Lions love Alabama products with four on the 53-man roster.

The diligence of the pro personnel department has paid dividends in 2024. The Lions have had to tap into their work and recommendations more than they could have imagined this year, signing multiple players to plug and play the following week. That includes four defensive additions taking the field during the first two series in an early December game against Green Bay.

“It's definitely been crazy,” Lohman said. “If you would have told me earlier in the season we would be bringing in all these linebackers when we had seven on the roster that we liked (to open the season), I would have told you that you're crazy.

“But I would also say this, I remember — all the years kind of get squished together — but I think it was two years ago when (Taylor) Decker got hurt in practice and missed the first six or seven games,” Lohman said. “Then, the next year, Jonah Jackson hurt his hand and missed a few games. Those experiences reinforced that you might feel great about a position right now, but you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month.

“In my position, I'm always looking at my list,” Lohman said. “I have to be thinking, OK, if we have an injury, who is the next guy at that spot? Even at linebacker. We had seven. I wasn't expecting to have to add all these linebackers, but in my mind, I was ready.”

A secondary element for the department, at least during the season, is the ongoing preparation for next year’s free agency. Teams don’t have the luxury of waiting until the end of the season to write up approximately 800 reports ahead of the start of the new league year in mid-March. Lohman's group is constantly picking away at that list between the advanced scouting and updating the database of immediately available talent.

Then the process starts all over again during training camp, when there are temporarily 2,900 players employed across the league, with more than 1,000 who won’t make a 53-man roster when final cuts go down. Calling in some help from other departments, 12-15 Lions staffers work through that massive list.

“You evaluate all those players, some of them make rosters, obviously, some get cut and sign with practice squads and some linger on the street,” Lohman said. “We get through that initial 53-man cut and I spend the next three or four days just sorting through all those names.

“All of that work lays the groundwork for the additions we're making now in November and December.”

Much like when Lohman evaluated himself in the mirror in high school, there are no delusions he’s going to unearth a star in the middle of the season. But a contributor, someone who fits the ethos of the team under Campbell? That Lohman can do.

“The player you have available in March and April is distinctly more talented than the player you have in November and December,” Lohman said. “But, the thing is, everybody knows that. You're not going to get the same level of player, but you can find the same level of effort, competitiveness and toughness. We can still find our type of player, even if they have a lesser skill set. You won't sacrifice that for anything.”

A valued voice

What shouldn’t go unrecognized is Lohman’s job satisfaction. He’s never taken for granted what he does, but the work hasn’t always been gratifying. That’s a relatable sentiment in most professions.

But there’s a reason he’s continued to survive and thrive with the Lions. It’s a simple formula, reinforced by former Lions assistant coach Don Clemons, who spent a remarkable 27 years with the team, surviving multiple regime changes long before Lohman did the same.

“I used to joke with him, 'How have you stuck around so long? Do you have pictures of somebody?'“ Lohman said. “He's like, 'No, you just have to work hard.'

“There's no secret formula,” Lohman continued. “You just have to work hard and realize you're here to be in service to the general manager. We're here to help him be successful and the team to be successful. Whatever your role is, you have to figure out, what does the GM want from me? What can I provide them? It's about figuring that out. Working for Bob Quinn has been completely different than working for Brad Holmes.”

As a pair of former college scouts, Lohman knew Holmes before he was hired, but they didn’t have anything more than a surface-level relationship.

While Lohman broke off into pro personnel, Holmes stayed on the college side, eventually becoming the Rams director of college scouting — parallel to Lohman’s role in Detroit — before the Lions hired Holmes as their GM.

Under Holmes, the Lions wanted to be a team built through the draft, which has been the foundation of their remarkable rebuild from a perennial bottom feeder to a legitimate Super Bowl contender. But when he was hired, Holmes readily acknowledged he had some blind spots on the pro personnel side. He plugged some of that by bringing Ray Agnew on as his assistant general manager, but also by leaning into Lohman’s experience and expertise.

To have his input sought to that degree was an adjustment for Lohman, but it’s turned out to be the best part about working for Holmes.

“The buzzword around here is collaborative, but we are,” Lohman said. “Whatever job you do, you don't want to do work and feel like it's not impactful, the work you're doing doesn't make a difference. Everything we do here feels like it adds value. …He listens. He wants to know what you think. I believe that's all you can ask for in my position. Ultimately, he's the final decision-maker. He and Dan are going to work together on the big decisions of who to add to the roster and what moves to make, but he values our input.

“...It's not always that way. It certainly hasn't always been that way for me.”

It’s more proof the culture in Detroit is as healthy as it has ever been. It’s made Lohman’s job easier in more ways than one. Not only does he feel validated through his work, but there’s been a noticeable shift when he reaches out to agents about their clients.

These days, it doesn’t take much convincing to get players to want to join the Lions. It’s easy to sell the team's success, Campbell’s energy, and a verifiable meritocracy when it comes to earning a role and playing time.

“That's something I tell agents all the time and I have multiple examples of players like that,” Lohman said. “It doesn't matter when you got here, how you got here, if you're on the practice squad or active roster, Dan has proven if you're the best player and you can help us, you're going to play. We'll elevate you, we'll sign you, we'll play you."