Brad Holmes isn’t a name every Rams fan will recognize, but he deserves a lot of credit for the success Los Angeles has had in recent years. He rose the ranks from working in the PR department as an intern to becoming a scout and eventually taking on the role as the director of college scouting.
He’s now the Detroit Lions’ general manager, but as the Rams’ college scouting director from 2013-2020, he helped guide the team’s selections in the draft – including the likes of Aaron Donald, Jared Goff, Todd Gurley and Cooper Kupp.
But the one player he really pounded the table for in the Rams’ war room was safety John Johnson III. The Rams took Johnson in the third round of the 2017 draft and he was a starter in L.A. for four years before signing with the Browns in free agency two years ago.
On “The Season with Peter Schrager”, Holmes recalled how he pushed for Los Angeles to take Johnson in 2017.
“For me, it was John Johnson. The safety out of BC,” Holmes said. “I’ll never forget, we get into the third round and you get to those points in the draft when the board just looks kind of foggy. No one’s standing out, it’s kind of just static. And everyone’s just kind of staring at it and I just said, ‘John Johnson. Let’s just pick John Johnson.’ I’ll never forget Wade Phillips, he looks over and says, ‘John Johnson?’ I said, ‘I’m telling you, this guy’s a starter. He’s a starter.’ And so Wade Phillips, I love Wade Phillips, he’s just like, ‘Oh, if he’s a starter then.’ I just kept pounding the table for John Johnson. I said, ‘I’m telling you, John Johnson.’”
Holmes said he watched Johnson play against UConn during the season and loved what he saw in person.
“I loved what I saw out of him,” Holmes said. “Like, another guy with just high intangibles, high work ethic. I actually thought he was gonna be more of a coverage player and he actually transformed himself into more of a box kind of player. I’ll never forget, that was the moment I felt I had a voice. And I think it was a needed voice because everyone was new. Had a whole new coaching staff, we did just a lot of change and makeover there.”
Johnson was a key defensive player for the Rams for four years, helping them reach the Super Bowl in 2018. He made the clinching interception in the NFC title game to send the Rams to the big game where they unfortunately came up short against the Patriots.
But that selection in Sean McVay’s first draft helped the Rams win a lot of games from 2017-2020.
