Connection to Lions OC Drew Petzing<\/a><\/p>\nHooper signed a one-year, $5 million contract with New England this past offseason, a price tag the Lions should value for a player who could challenge for a TE2 role. Hooper is a terrific fit with what the Lions are looking for at tight end, and his history working with Petzing should give the Lions some comfort. With the expected increase of 13 personnel (three tight end sets), Hooper could be atop the Lions\u2019 offseason wish list.<\/p>\n
Josh Jones, OL (Seattle, PFF: 74.3) \u2014 Minor connection to PetzingThayer Munford, RT (Patriots, PFF: 67.9)Vederian Lowe, LT (Patriots, PFF: 61.4)<\/p>\n
None of the starters on either team will be free agents this offseason, though Jones did give the Seahawks some starter reps at left tackle late in 2025. Jones was with the Cardinals in 2023 and did go through training camp with Petzing, but Arizona traded him away before the regular season. While he struggled in the two seasons since leaving Arizona, he settled in well in Seattle and has shown swing tackle upside (with some experience at guard) and could be a contender for an OT3 role.<\/p>\n
Khyiris Tonga, NT (Patriots, PFF: 70.7)<\/p>\n
In 2024, Tonga backed up Lions nose tackle Roy Lopez in Arizona, but he departed for New England last offseason and has been a starter for the Patriots in the second half of the season. If Lopez and DJ Reader depart in free agency, the Lions could consider Tonga for a rotational role.<\/p>\n
Boye Mafe, LB (Seattle, PFF: 69.2)K\u2019Lavon Chaisson, LB (Patriots, PFF: 60.3)<\/p>\n
While both Mafe and Chaisson are primarily stand-up pass rushers in their respective schemes, each could appeal to the Lions if Detroit is willing to tweak their scheme priorities a bit.<\/p>\n
Mafe is the more complete player, checks in at 6-foot-4, 261 pounds, and while he gets hype for his pass-rushing skills, his run defense is arguably better. With this in mind, even though Mafe only played 50% of defensive snaps, it shouldn\u2019t be too surprising that PFF ranks Mafe No. 22 on their free agency list and projects him to require a three-year contract worth $49 million ($30 million guaranteed).<\/p>\n
Chaisson (6-foot-3, 245) played more snaps than Mafe this season (around 63%), but is considered more of a pass-rushing specialist, as he saw nearly twice as many pass-rush snaps (502) as against the run (254). Chassion checks in at No. 91 on PFF\u2019s rankings, despite coming off a career-high 7.5 sack season.<\/p>\n
Drake Thomas, WILL (Seattle, RFA, PFF: 73.3)Chazz Surratt (Seattle, PFF: 50.5)<\/p>\n
After going undrafted in 2023, Thomas was a special-teamer in his first two seasons in the NFL, but this past season, he elevated his play and earned the Seahawks\u2019 starting WILL job in Week 4, and he never relinquished it. While his resume is limited, he has continued to evolve his game since earning a starting role and has a lot of upside in defending the run and dropping into coverage. That upside could keep him from reaching free agency, as Thomas is still an RFA and arguably worth a tender.<\/p>\n
Josh Jobe (Seattle, PFF: 55.8)Tariq Wollen (Seattle, PFF: 60.1)<\/p>\n
While Seattle\u2019s top cornerback is Devon Witherspoon, Wollen and Jobe have been battling each other for playing time throughout the season, and both were speculated to be on the trading block at the deadline. For Detroit, Jobe would be the better stylistic fit, and has experience playing alongside Brian Branch (2020-21) and Terrion Arnold (2021) at Alabama, but it\u2019s not entirely clear what his market will be. As for Wollen, not only is he not a great fit for the Lions\u2019 man-heavy scheme, but PFF is also projecting him to require a contract in the three-year, $45 million range, and checks in as their No. 46 free agent in their rankings.<\/p>\n
Coby Bryant, FS (Seattle, PFF: 67.4)Jaylinn Hawkins, FS (Patriots, PFF: 78.8)<\/p>\n
Both Bryant and Hawkins are having career years, and both landed on PFF\u2019s free agent ranks, checking in at No. 67 and No. 70, respectively. Bryant started his career as a nickel corner, but he struggled to get his footing and shifted to safety, where he\u2019s thrived the past two seasons. As for Hawkins, he never found his groove in Atlanta or Los Angeles (Chargers), but has settled in nicely with the Patriots defense. Neither player is elite, but both are very solid starters who could command strong paydays if they hit the open market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Super Bowl LX is upon us, as the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks get ready to face…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2071],"tags":[146,113,449,11309,2506,7,147,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-738401","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-detroit-lions-analysis","11":"tag-detroit-lions-free-agency","12":"tag-detroitlions","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-lions","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116036024855986176","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738401","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=738401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}