Detroit Lions fans were expecting some semblance of a splash at the edge rusher position this offseason. Instead, they pretty much got the opposite.
The Lions finished with just 37 sacks in 2024, and their sacks leader, Aidan Hutchinson, only played in five games. No other Lion had more than four.
And the only other Detroit defender to tally at least four was Za’Darius Smith, who finished second on the team despite playing just eight games with the Lions following the team’s trade deadline acquisition.
The Lions really put themselves in a precarious situation after cutting Smith, with general manager Brad Holmes citing the team’s inability to afford his contract.
Up until this point, the most significant moves the Lions have made at the position were the re-signing of Marcus Davenport and the selection of Ahmed Hassanein, a rookie who was taken in the sixth round of the 2025 NFL draft.
There are obvious issues with both players.
Hassanein is a total wild card as a rookie, and Davenport has simply been unable to stay healthy during his career. We saw that again in 2024, as Davenport appeared in just two games because of a torn triceps.
Fast forward to this offseason and Davenport has impressed both Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell, both of whom are high on the 28-year-old.
“If it goes the way we think it’s going to go, Davenport is going to be a hell of a player,” Campbell said, per Justin Rogers of The Detroit Football Network.
“And then we brought back Marcus Davenport on a one-year deal. He was playing really good football for us before he unfortunately got hurt. And so hopefully he gets better luck on his side. He’s been out there, and I would say he looks good, man. His body is feeling great. His body looks great, man. And he had a good summer as well in terms of the OTAs,” Holmes said on the Green Light podcast.
Davenport has never played a full season in the NFL. The closest he came was in 2022, when he appeared in 15 games. Over the past two seasons, Davenport has played just six contests, including two last year in Detroit.
Here’s a rundown of Davenport’s number of missed games each season:
- 2018: 3
- 2019: 3
- 2020: 5
- 2021: 6
- 2022: 2
- 2023: 13
- 2024: 15
His production has also been erratic. Davenport has tallied six or more sacks twice, including a career-high nine in 2021, but has also finished with two or less four times.
That’s hardly someone a team with Super Bowl aspirations can heavily depend on in such an important season.
Maybe Davenport breaks the trend and has a big year opposite Hutchinson. However, expecting him to do that is a dangerous proposition.
