The Lions are advised to sign a veteran edge rusher who just had his best season ever.

 

 

 

 

After a play in a Buffalo Bills game, Getty Leonard Floyd celebrates.

Aidan Hutchinson, a talented edge rusher, was signed by the Detroit Lions, but they have been without a reliable pass rusher for the past two seasons.

According to one source, the organization could try to sign a veteran who just finished his greatest season as a player with the Buffalo Bills.

In his analysis of the team’s offseason requirements, Jared Ramsey of the Detroit Free Press pointed out that the Lions had trouble stopping the pass and applying steady pressure to opposition quarterbacks. Ramsey proposed that Leonard Floyd, an edge rusher who recorded double-digit sacks with the Bills in 2023, be a potential target for the Lions.

Although Ramsey mentioned that the Lions may target many defensive linemen who are available as free agents, such as Calais Campbell or Jadaveon Clowney, he identified Floyd as the most likely candidate. He pointed out that while the former pass rusher for the Los Angeles Rams would not come cheap, he might be a huge asset to the Detroit defense.

“He delivered ten and a half sacks this season for the Bills, but he will be 32 in September,” Ramsey wrote. According to Spotrac, “his anticipated 2024 deal is two years and $16.2 million, for an average of $8.1 million per year.”

Floyd has already stated that he will accept the highest offer he receives following the team’s playoff exit and that he won’t be offering the Bills a local discount.

“I always follow the money,” she says. It’s unfortunate, but I would like to be here. It’s an enterprise. According to the Democrat & Chronicle, Floyd declared, “I’m going to go wherever my agency thinks that we get the most money from.”

In the same way that they did with Hutchinson and fellow second-year player James Houston, who had injury struggles in his first season while showing glimpses of star performance, the Lions may potentially keep developing their pass rush through the draft.

The club could try to choose UCLA’s Laiatu Latu, who is expected to be a late first-round selection, according to Christian Booher of SI.com’s All Lions. After returning from a medical retirement in college due to a neck injury sustained during the 2020 preseason, Booher said in November that Latu may be a strong fit in Detroit, even if the Lions could need to trade up to get him.

“He has a sure-tackling ability that has produced 18.5 tackles for loss this season alone, along with elite quickness and a knack for getting to the quarterback,” Booher wrote. “However, concerns about his durability as it relates to his injury could hurt his draft stock, though his production as of late has seemed to counter those misgivings.” Over the past two seasons, he has participated in all 23 games that have been feasible, so durability has not been an issue.

Latu, who had to take a two-year hiatus from football to heal from a neck injury, is similarly driven to establish himself in the NFL.

According to Latu, via The Associated Press, “All the while that I wasn’t playing football, I simply had the drive and the attitude that I was going to be able to come back and play football and prove to the world what I could do.”