The social media discourse about the Detroit Lions defense right now is truly something. On one hand, there are a lot of fans who believe that the Lions defense is really good and they expect the trend to continue once the Lions get over an insane amount of injuries from their starters and key players. They're not alone there by the way. Experts expect the Lions defense to be right back in the top five where they were last year.
Then there are others who believe the Lions defense is as good as they were in 2021 and that there's no possible way they were top five in defensive DVOA all the way up until Week 11 when they started losing everyone and were a full on M.A.S.H. unit.
Those people think Lions GM Brad Holmes is failing at his job because he hasn't managed to bring in a premium edge rusher opposite Aidan Hutchinson. This article is for them. What they wanted was always impossible.
These fans clamored for Maxx Crosby for nearly two seasons, and while there were times where the Lions may have been interested in starting a dialogue with the Raiders about it, the Raiders never wanted anything to do with moving Crosby. They wanted to keep him so badly that they signed him to a massive three-year $106.5 million extension this year. The Lions were just never going to do that.
Then there's Myles Garrett. The Lions reportedly called during the trade deadline and were interested, but the Browns very publicly maintained over and over again that they were not going to move him. Then the Browns signed him to a five-year $125 million extension. The Lions were just never going to do that.
Then there's the Trey Hendrickson trade. Look, I'll be the first to tell you that the Lions could afford this move and it would be the smartest one they could make. But I'll also tell you that the Bengals are the most stubborn team to ever exist and Hendrickson's rep told them they'd bring a first-round pick back in a trade. That's not happening. Teams are reportedly not willing to bend to their demands.
The Bengals are now trying to find a way to extend Hendrickson. So that's likely completely out of the question for the Lions now.
Holmes talked about this kind of thing at the 2025 NFL Combine and how hard it is to pull off one of these trades.
“There are not a lot of those guys available," Holmes explained. "You can always say, so we lost a star edge rusher due to injury, right? Well, just because you lose a star pass rusher, there’s not but so many in the league anyway. Just because we lost a star pass rusher due to injury, that doesn’t mean that other teams are going to say, ‘Hey, we have a star pass rusher. I know that you lost one, but we have one. Would you like to have this one?’ No, that’s a star pass rusher for that team and they’re trying to win games...
"Those guys are hard to acquire, and it’s hard to keep them, financially. Again, we have one that’s due for an extension and we’ve already kind of gotten to the planning stages about him already,” Holmes added. “When you talk about adding another one, it’s, can you financially add another one? Because you want to add the other one on top of everything else that you have and that makes it tough.”
Which brings us to the next point. There really weren't any standout pass rushers in this year's free agency. There may have been some names that you know like Joey Bosa or Von Miller, but those guys are not the players they once were.
The players that were available like Josh Sweat or Dayo Odeyingbo went way over market this offseason because they were the best of just an ok situation.
The Lions' very best shot to find that guy opposite Hutchinson is to draft that guy. If there's one thing we've seen from Holmes thus far, it's that he's a pretty good drafter. Let's see what he does in April.
