The Detroit Lions entered the 2025 NFL draft with a major need along the edge, but the team has yet to address that with any of their picks.
Instead, the Lions drafted a defensive lineman in Tyleik Williams, a guard in Tate Ratledge and a wide receiver in Isaac TeSlaa. General manager Brad Holmes did address not taking an edge rusher after Day 2 was completed.
“All I hear is edge rusher, draft edge. So I’m like, well, are you assuming that the guy is really good? Well, that’s a whole different story,” Holmes said. “Can you get in a position to get one of those? And look, I don’t need to get into specifics, but there are times where we made attempts to get one and we got picked before, we couldn’t get up. The team didn’t — it takes two to trade — or we just had another player higher.
“But we did the same thing that we do every draft. We picked the highest-rated player regardless of position," the Lions GM added. "So that’s what we did this whole way through. That’s what we’re going to do again tomorrow. So yes, we could have — there’s some edge rushers still available. We don’t have them rated this (high), you know what I mean? So we’re going to always get the best player.”
It's certainly fair to point out that even if the Lions had added an edge rusher in the draft, there's no guarantee that player would've panned out, especially in Year 1. However, the chances of that happening with a late-round edge rusher are even slimmer.
With two days of the draft having come and gone without an edge rusher, Bleacher Report's Timothy Rapp suggested the Lions pull off a blockbuster trade with the Cincinnati Bengals for star edge rusher Trey Hendrickson.
The Lions could seriously benefit from adding an edge-rusher next to Aidan Hutchinson, especially after they didn't address the position during the first two days of the NFL draft.
Marcus Davenport is a solid player, but he's never had a single season with double-digit sacks and has 24 career sacks in seven seasons. Hendrickson has four seasons with double-digit sacks and has eclipsed Davenport's career sacks in the past two seasons alone.
Hendrickson and the Bengals have been working on an extension this offseason, but the two sides have been unable to agree to anything. Cincinnati has also given Hendrickson permission to seek a trade, so it's possible he's moved at some point.
It goes without saying that Hendrickson, who has more sacks than any edge rusher in the NFL the past two seasons and just led the league in the category with 17.5 in 2024, would be a massive upgrade.
A pairing of Hendrickson and Aidan Hutchinson would give the Lions arguably the best duo in the NFL and would take the Lions' defense to a completely different level, which would also improve their Super Bowl chances.
The problem with this scenario is financial. Holmes admitted the Lions couldn't afford Za'Darius' Smith's $11 million or so salary after they cut him, so fitting in Hendrickson's $15.8 million cap hit may not be feasible. The Lions would also have to extend him, which could cost north of $30 million per year.
But, at this point, the Lions are in a precarious situation, which could force Holmes to make it work. Unfortunately, we wouldn't hold our breath for that and instead expect Detroit to make a smaller move.
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