The Philadelphia Eagles have made a huge addition to their pass-rush following their Week 1 win over the Dallas Cowboys.
According to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero, former Detroit Lions veteran edge rusher Za'Darius Smith is signing a one-year deal with the Eagles. The financial terms of the deal have yet to be revealed. Smith confirmed the signing on Instagram.
Smith spent the 2024 campaign with both the Lions and Cleveland Browns. He was traded to Detroit at the deadline and finished with nine sacks.
Detroit surprisingly cut Smith earlier in the offseason, with general manager Brad Holmes revealing it was for financial reasons.
"It was an amicable decision," Holmes said. "We couldn't afford it is the bottom line... That was my communication with him and he understood that."
The two sides flirted with a reunion all offseason long. Smith had made it clear he wanted to return to Detroit and Holmes said the Lions still had interest in bringing him back.
However, things took a turn for the worse recently, when head coach Dan Campbell said "we're good" when asked why the team didn't re-sign Smith.
"Well, we’re good right now," Campbell said of not re-signing Smith. "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."
Smith's girlfriend, Detroit rapper Kash Doll, didn't take kindly to the comment and fired back at the Lions head coach, which was the first sign that a reunion wasn't happening.
"Hey coach, we're good," she wrote on Instagram.
The Lions not re-signing Smith could prove to be a massive blunder, as the team is very short on depth at the position and has an injury-prone starter in Marcus Davenport.
Now, Smith is going to Philly, a team that could be a roadblock for the Lions' hopes of winning a Super Bowl.
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