The Detroit Lions may have not seen edge rusher as a need this offseason, here’s why

Free agency and the 2024 NFL Draft are in the books. The Detroit Lions went out and made some very strong moves to rebuild their cornerback room from the ground up and secure the future of their offensive line. But they ignored a key spot that everyone thought they would address and that's an edge rusher.

In free agency it made a lot of sense, the guys that were available were getting contracts that top end quarterbacks used to get not long ago. The Lions were just never going to pony up the dough like that. They did bring in Marcus Davenport though. He was a much cheaper option. 

It was expected that they'd go the edge rusher route in the draft, but they really didn't do much pre-draft work on edge rushers and they didn't draft a single one in the draft. 

There's two ways of looking at it. The Lions either plain missed out or they just never looked at it as a big need like everyone else did. I think it's the more the latter and when you really peel the layers away, they might be right in their thought process. 

The Lions struggled to get sacks early on during the 2023 season. There's no getting around that. What you can do is agree that everything works together as a machine. When one part is isn't working, the other tends to struggle. So when the Lions had one of the worst secondaries in football, it's easy to look at the defensive line and say no wonder they struggled. They had limited time to get there since receivers were constantly open.  

When the Lions began to adjust their secondary in the back half of the season, the sacks started to show up. The Lions had 41 sacks in 2023. Nearly half of those came in the final six weeks of the season. The Lions had 18 sacks after they made adjustments in the secondary. They had a league leading nine in the playoffs. That's 27 sacks in nine weeks. No other team was doing that. 

So there's cause to think that bucking down on the secondary and massively improving that area could result in the Lions pass rush having an easier time getting home. 

In terms of the additions they did make to their line, there's really nothing to scoff at here. While Davenport has dealt with injuries, he's been sacking dudes when he's healthy. He's got 23.5 sacks in 35 starts. While it doesn't seem like it now, the likelihood is that Davenport is going to be a much bigger part of the Lions defensive line than initially thought. 

DJ Reader is the bigger addition for the pass rush though. He often takes double teams and the space that he can eat up is going to allow everyone else on the line to have a better chance of getting home. Then there's Mehki Wingo. He had 8.5 sacks last season and there's some outside potential for him. 

It's a risk at the end of the day. You're really buying into the idea that the Lions defensive line will function without a true pass rushing stud opposite Aidan Hutchinson. We'll see if it works soon.