{"id":779670,"date":"2026-02-27T10:42:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T10:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/779670\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T10:42:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T10:42:34","slug":"florida-dl-would-love-to-play-for-detroit-lions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/779670\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida DL would ‘love to play’ for Detroit Lions"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Detroit Lions<\/a> evaluate potential options for the franchise at the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine, one Florida Gator<\/a> appears to have caught the franchise’s attention.<\/p>\n

Florida edge rusher Tyreak Sapp confirmed to Crunch Time Sports that he has met with the Lions this week at the combine.<\/p>\n

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The 6-foot-3, 274-pound defensive lineman gushed about the potential opportunity to play for Detroit and opposite Lions star edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson.<\/p>\n

“Man, I get excited, I get happy, just because that’s somebody that I obviously watched in college coming up. But, just how dangerous that would be, that would be nasty.<\/p>\n

“Me and him out there rushing off the edge, wreaking havoc in people’s backfields, getting after the quarterback and sacking the quarterback a plethora of times, that would be awesome. And then obviously playing for the Detroit Lions which is a premier team in the National Football League, I would love to play for Detroit,” Sapp said.<\/p>\n

Sapp could be available in the mid-rounds of the 2026 NFL draft. In Mel Kiper’s latest NFL draft Big Board, Sapp was listed just outside Kiper’s top 10 defensive ends and in his “just missed” section.<\/p>\n

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The Lions want to address their pass rush opposite Hutchinson and adding an explosive playmaker like Sapp that wants to be in the Motor City could be a compelling option.<\/p>\n

Interestingly enough, Sapp was mocked as a late first-round selection to the Lions<\/a> in Matt Miller’s way-too-early 2026 NFL mock draft in June of last year.<\/p>\n

Sapp registered seven sacks and 13 tackles for loss during his breakout 2024 campaign. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., native totaled 3.5 tackles for loss and one sack in 2025.<\/p>\n

During his Gators career, Sapp notched 125 tackles, 21.5 tackles for loss and 10 sacks.<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at Sapp’s 2024 highlights, courtesy of The NFL Film Room.<\/p>\n

For more\u00a0Lions<\/a>\u00a0coverage, follow us on X,\u00a0@TheLionsWire<\/a>, and give our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0page a like.\u00a0Follow Josh on X,\u00a0@JoshOnLions<\/a><\/p>\n

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This article originally appeared on Lions Wire: Florida DL would ‘love to play’ for Detroit Lions<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Detroit Lions evaluate potential options for the franchise at the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine, one Florida…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":779671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2071],"tags":[1817,146,113,2506,14207,7,2388,147,6,32204],"class_list":{"0":"post-779670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-aidan-hutchinson","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-lions","11":"tag-detroitlions","12":"tag-florida-gator","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-gators","15":"tag-lions","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-tyreak-sapp"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116142181146263502","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779670","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=779670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/779671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}