Brad Holmes has heard the clamor for the Lions to add an elite edge rusher. To which he says, do they not have Aidan Hutchinson?
Hutchinson is coming off a fractured leg, but was arguably the best defensive player in the NFL last season before the injury and will be a full go for training camp.
Speaking Monday at the NFL owners meetings about the Lions' relatively quiet offseason, Holmes said, "I know everybody is craving an edge rusher, but we have, in our opinion, one of the elite guys. And look, how many elite edge rushers are in the NFL? Four or five? Wouldn’t you think our guy is one of them? Well, if it’s four or five elite edge rushers in the league, how many teams are in the league? 32, right? Usually two defensive ends are on the field at the same time, right? So, that’s 64. You know what I mean? Because we have at least one of them, you have to make sure that you’re keeping that in context as well."
The Lions were linked in rumors this offseason to three other elite defensive ends who were theoretically available via trade in Myles Garrett, Maxx Crosby and Trey Hendrickson. Garrett and Crosby re-upped with their current teams for $40 million and $35.5 million per year, respectively, while Hendrickson -- the NFL's sack leader over the last two seasons -- is still seeking a new deal from the Bengals.
Adding a player at that cost was never feasible for the Lions when they're already committed to extending their own stars, starting with Hutchinson who will likely command at least $40 million per year on his next deal. The Lions have also had extension talks with All-Pro safety Kerby Joseph, while mulling extensions down the line for players like Jameson Williams, Brian Branch and Sam LaPorta. They spent about $330 million last year on extensions for 2021 draft picks Amon-Ra St. Brown, Penei Sewell and Alim McNeill.
"That’s kind of where we are right now, is that, we have so many of these young players that have been on rookie deals and we’ve been enjoying the impact that they’ve all been bringing, but now a bill is coming," said Holmes. "And what you spend this year is going to impact next year, it even impacts 2027. That’s the discipline that we have to adhere to."
Holmes understands that when a player like Hutchinson suffers a season-ending injury, "psychologically, (fans) think ... he’s not on the team anymore, he wasn’t there at the end." But the Lions "feel great" about Hutchinson's recovery and expect him to be just as dominant moving forward: "Look, we don’t have a crystal ball on anything, but I’ve seen enough movement and mobility and running at this stage that I feel very confident where he’s going to be at," said Holmes.
On top of that, Holmes was "almost doing a backflip" when the Lions kept Levi Onwuzurike on a one-year, $4 million deal after he posted some of the best QB pressure numbers at his position last season -- "hopefully he can get home even more" -- and said the Lions are hopeful that Marcus Davenport's injury woes are finally behind him after they brought him back on a one-year, $2.5 million
"That frees up Josh Pascal to do be able to do a lot more from a pass-rush standpoint, really more interior wise than outside," said Holmes. "We just had to use Paschal as an edge rusher because of circumstances with injuries and all of that. So we feel good where we’re at."
And with defensive tackle Roy Lopez joining DJ Reader on the interior while the Lions wait for McNeill to recover from a torn ACL, "we feel pretty good," said Holmes. "Actually, we’re getting kind of heavy on the defensive line. Not saying that any position will be ignored, but so far, I feel like we’ve had success and we’re going to continue to fill depth because you saw last year how important that part is."
As the Lions budget for the years ahead, Holmes said that Hutchinson is "one of many" future extensions that required the organization to put money to the side, which "shrunk" what "we were able to spend this year." But the Lions remain in contact with some lower-cost free agents who could fortify the team's depth, like defensive end Za'Darius Smith.
The Lions released Smith at the start of this offseason to clear his $5.7 million cap hit and get his contract off the books in future seasons, which Holmes called an "amicable decision." But they haven't ruled out bringing him back at the right price for both sides.
"We couldn’t afford it, bottom line. That was my communication with him, and he understood that," said Holmes. "Again, that’s an expensive position. ... We just really weren’t in a position to keep him at his salary. Look, he played some good snaps for us and he made plays for us when we acquired him, so we would have loved to be able to keep him, we just weren’t able to. But we’ve been keeping in touch with his agent and he understands that process, so we’ll just see how it goes."
The Lions are also counting on more production this year from defensive linemen like Mekhi Wingo, a sixth-round pick last year whose rookie season was cut short by a knee injury. That was another part of the team's calculus, said Holmes, in not splurging at the position this offseason. Wingo played a quarter of the defensive snaps last year in the games for which he was active.
"We have a lot of young players on our team that we’re still excited about. It may not be players that got a lion’s share of snaps in the regular season last year, but that we’ve been watching throughout the year that we’re really excited about," said Holmes. "So it gets to a point now where it’s like, do you want to add another veteran that you might not be as exited about (when) you might be a little bit more excited about this second-year guy that probably spent a little bit of time on the practice squad, got active a little bit of times?
"So, we’re kind of at that point now. But pretty much all positions are still on the table just to add depth and competition across the board."