While the summer months often represent an opportunity to rest, relax, and recharge, it’s anything but that for a team with Super Bowl aspirations like the Detroit Lions; the team is always looking for ways to improve their roster, no matter where they find themselves in the NFL calendar.
And that much is true for the “will they or won’t they?” saga between the Lions and veteran edge rusher Za’Darius Smith. On Wednesday, GM Brad Holmes was asked if there was any interest in a reunion between Smith and the Lions during his appearance on 97.1 The Ticket’s ‘Costa and Jansen with Heather.’
“Za’Darius [Smith] did a lot of good things last year for us, and we said we’re going to keep in contact with his agent,” Holmes said of the team’s communication with the former Lion.
“But everything’s not just one-sided,” Holmes continued. “Za’Darius has expectations, the team has expectations, so sometimes it takes a while for those things to get on the same page. Especially a guy, you know, that’s been in the league as long as he has. I’m not saying that he doesn’t want to be in training camp, but if he misses some time, there’s obviously still interest there and we’ve been keeping in touch.”
Detroit entered training camp this summer with Marcus Davenport, who missed 15 games last season, as the defensive end opposite of Aidan Hutchinson, who himself is returning from a shortened 2024 season after fracturing his tibia and fibula last October. The Lions made a move to acquire Smith at last season’s trade deadline to deal with the mounting injuries at the position, but after losing Levi Onwuzurike for the upcoming season to an ACL injury, and without Josh Paschal until “probably early September,” the urgency to get some reinforcement on the edge of their defensive line has become more pressing.
Smith played in all 17 games last year—eight with the Lions—and finished with 63 pressures (t-10th among EDGE defenders per Pro Football Focus) and 9.0 sacks.
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