ALLEN PARK — The Detroit Lions are mocked by nearly everyone, far and wide, for an edge rusher in the first round of the upcoming NFL draft. <\/p>\n
While that may be the case, the Lions are still kicking the tires on some leftovers on the free-agent market. ESPN reports the Lions met with veteran pass rusher DeMarcus Walker last week. <\/p>\n
Walker, 30, started all 17 games for the Chicago Bears last season. The 2017 second-round pick out of Florida State made sporadic starts throughout the first six years of his career, then saw 29 starts across his two seasons in Chicago. <\/p>\n
He had 3.5 sacks in each of the last two years, including 16 tackles for loss and 32 quarterback hits during his time with the Bears. <\/p>\n
Walker\u2019s best season came in 2022 while with the Tennessee Titans when he posted a career-best seven sacks. However, he\u2019s been a consistent pressure creator from a rotation, notching 48 quarterback hits across the last three seasons and at least 30 pressures in four consecutive seasons. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Detroit\u2019s pass rush was lacking down the stretch last season. They were without Aidan Hutchinson, Alim McNeill, Marcus Davenport and Mekhi Wingo on the defensive line, and it showed. Hutchinson is expected back, while the Lions re-signed the oft-injured Davenport. <\/p>\n
McNeill and Wingo, who play on the inside, are recovering from ACL injuries suffered in the second half of last season. The Lions signed Roy Lopez in free agency to eat interior reps alongside DJ Reader. But more depth for the edges in free agency or the draft would allow players like Josh Paschal and Levi Onwuzurike to play inside more. <\/p>\n
Brad Holmes told local reporters at NFL owners meetings that Onwuzurike\u2019s return paired with better injury luck for Davenport could free Paschal to rush the passer inside more. The Lions general manager said they were forced to use Paschal as a pure edge rusher last season due to all the injuries. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we feel pretty good,\u201d Holmes said last week. \u201cActually, we\u2019re getting kinda heavy on the defensive line. Not saying that any position will be ignored. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut so far I feel like we\u2019ve had success, and we\u2019re going to continue to fill depth, as I think you saw last year how important that part is.\u201d<\/p>\n
BetMGM<\/a> has the Lions at +450 to win the NFC for the upcoming 2025-2026 NFL season. Our comprehensive BetMGM Sportsbook <\/a>review provides a guide on how to sign up and use the platform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLEN PARK — The Detroit Lions are mocked by nearly everyone, far and wide, for an edge rusher…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[146,113,2506,7,147,6,3846],"class_list":{"0":"post-20924","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-detroit","9":"tag-detroit-lions","10":"tag-detroitlions","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-lions","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-nflraw24"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114444734702360823","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}