The table has been set all offseason long for the Detroit Lions to reunite with edge rusher Za'Darius Smith after the was cut earlier this offseason, but that never came to fruition and now Smith is headed to Philadelphia to play for the Eagles.
Smith has signed a one-year deal with the Eagles. We don't have the numbers for the deal just yet, but the veteran edge rusher and the team have confirmed he is indeed signing with the Super Bowl champs.
Smith is no doubt long in the tooth as he prepares to turn 33 in a few days, but he still has some gas left in the tank after he finished with nine sacks last season, four of which came with the Lions after he was traded from the Cleveland Browns.
Why didn't the Lions re-sign Za'Darius Smith?
The Lions surprisingly cut Smith earlier this offseason despite the fact that the team had a shaky situation along the edge. Detroit is relying on the injury-prone Marcus Davenport to start opposite Aidan Hutchinson, and the team is sorely lacking depth.
Smith was very clear that he wanted to reunite with the Lions, and general manager Brad Holmes said in August that Detroit still had interest in that happening.
It's hard to pinpoint exactly why the two sides never reconnected, but we can make a few guesses. The first has to do with finances.
After cutting Smith, Holmes admitted the team couldn't afford him, which is bizarre to hear when you consider that the Lions are sitting with $34 million in cap space as Week 1 approaches and Smith was only set to cost $11 million or so this season.
Perhaps Smith was simply asking for more money than the Lions were willing to pay. It'll be interesting to see how much the Eagles landed him for.
More recently, head coach Dan Campbell revealed that the team feels confident enough in what it has on the roster to not bring Smith back, so that's another potential reason why he wasn't re-signed.
"Well, we’re good right now," Campbell said of not bringing Smith back. "I mean, we’re pretty good here. We got (Marcus) Davenport, we got good depth, I like what we got on the interior, too, we got a lot of flexibility and we’re sitting pretty good right now. So we’re ready to go, man."
That was probably the last straw for Smith's hopes of re-signing with the Lions and it may have spurred on action from the veteran. We know his girlfriend and Detroit rapper, Kash Doll, was none-too-pleased with Campbell's comment.
"Hey coach. We're good," she said in a post on Instagram that also included a waving emoji.
The fact of the matter is, the Lions desperately needed to bring Smith back, so this is a massive failure on their part, no matter how you slice it.
Now, the Lions will officially enter the season with a very shaky situation along the edge, and one of their top competitors in the NFC, the Eagles, have strengthened theirs.
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