As the Lions turn their attention toward the offseason, here are their four biggest positions of need—ranked.
Each offseason has a distinct feeling, and that’s been especially true since Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes assumed their respective roles with the Detroit Lions in the 2021 offseason.
That initial offseason was the one where they traded the franchise’s most prolific quarterback, Matthew Stafford, tearing the roster down to its studs and starting from square one. The second offseason was when Holmes had the draft resources to get aggressive. With the No. 2 overall pick. he could make a play for not only one of the draft’s top pass rushers in Aidan Hutchinson, but also move up for arguably the draft’s best receiver, Jameson Williams, at a grab-n-stash discount because of his injury in the National Championship game. The next offseason, it was another year of flexibility in the draft, moving all over the board to find difference makers like Jahmyr Gibbs, Sam LaPorta, and Brian Branch, but we also saw Holmes get his most aggressive in free agency, attempting to bolster the secondary with the likes of Cam Sutton, C.J. Gardner-Johnson, and Emmanuel Moseley. Holmes continued to maneuver his way around the draft board the next offseason, but took his second swing at revamping the secondary after striking out last spring—this time in a much more youthful approach by drafting Terrion Arnold and Ennis Rakestraw with his first two picks in the 2024 NFL Draft , bringing in Amik Robertson through free agency, and making a trade for a proven No. 1 corner in Carlton Davis.
And for yet another offseason, it’s a different feeling. Detroit is trying to pick up the pieces after an all-too-early exit in the Divisional Round, and that includes rebuilding both the roster and the coaching staff. For more on the coaching staff, check out Erik Schlitt’s breakdowns of potential candidates for both offensive and defensive coordinator .
Over here it’s about the roster, though. Here’s to a third time being the charm for Detroit figuring out the cornerback position. However, instead of having to completely reimagine it, they have a group of familiar faces—but what are their places? How about the defensive line? Who’s lining up opposite Aidan Hutchinson? Is Brodric Martin going to play at all? On the other side of the ball, what’s the plan for the interior of Detroit’s offensive line?
The Lions have some glaring needs this offseason beyond just shoring up the depth at various positions, but here are the four biggest positions of need for Detroit ahead of the offseason—ranked.
4. Defensive tackle
It feels like it’s about that time for Holmes to heavily reinvest in the defensive line. Levi Onwuzurike is a pending free agent, and it’s hard to see him returning on the kind of deal that would work for Detroit considering what a team might be willing to offer him in free agency. He had some great games in his third season removed from the University of Washington, posting three games where he registered five pressures or more—including that big game in Week 18 where he recorded nine pressures against the Minnesota Vikings . But he was held to two pressures or less in nine of his 16 games played this season, and maybe what’s the most valuable thing that happened for Onwuzurike: proving to teams his body can withstand a year of play—a career-high 635 defensive snaps in the regular season, the 31st-most snaps by an interior defender in 2024.
So if Onwuzurike, the Lions most movable piece along the defensive line, is out of the picture, who is replacing those snaps? Even if you’re banking on a year of healthy Alim McNeill and DJ Reader, it’s going to take a full player to replace the snaps Onwuzurike leaves behind.
What’s next for Brodric Martin? Is he a viable player for this roster, or is this not working out? The reality of the situation is that Martin played 25 snaps for a defense that was suffering injuries left and right along their defensive line. Jonah Williams, who played in three games for Detroit after he signed with the team on Nov. 29 , played 36 snaps in the regular season—45 when you include the playoff game. Mekhi Wingo had more career snaps through Week 4 than Martin would have by the end of his second season. Kyle Peko and Pat O’Connor are free agents as well. Even if Martin makes an incredible jump this offseason, he alone isn’t enough to make up for the unaccounted snaps, especially not if the Lions wish to upgrade this group.
3. Cornerback
For the third straight offseason, the cornerback position comes with its own host of questions, but they’re different from those a year ago. Instead of looking to replace Cam Sutton’s spot at CB1, upgrade from Kindle Vildor as CB2, and replace Brian Branch and C.J. Gardner-Johnson’s role at nickel corner, Holmes first has to figure out the fit of those players he has under contract.
Is Arnold ready to assume the CB1 role, or is Davis a priority player to re-sign? Robertson made a brief, but impactful, statement as an outside cornerback when filling in for Davis, but would the incoming defensive coordinator prefer him in the slot? Detroit double-dipped when they took Rakestraw in the second round of the 2024 NFL Draft, but what sort of workload are they counting on him to take on in Year 2? He played reps at nickel and outside during the preseason, so there’s plenty of versatility between him and Robertson, but it wouldn’t feel like the Lions are entering the 2025 season with a No. 1 cornerback if they were content with Arnold, Robertson, and Rakestraw as the starters.
It would be reasonable for Davis, 28, to be seeking some financial security with a longer-term deal at this point in his career, but he hasn’t played more than 13 games in a season since 2020, so it’s hard to anticipate the kind of commitment a team is willing to make for him. When he’s healthy, he’s a No. 1 corner and a team could be willing to shell out for what he brings to the table, but again, he played fewer snaps in 2024 (697) than he has in his seven-year career. Holmes could simply bring back Davis and alleviate the primary concerns about the position: there’s a CB1 on the roster again, Arnold isn’t forced to be “the guy” ahead of schedule, and Rakestraw isn’t counted on being a contributor off the rip.
But should Detroit choose to let Davis walk, the options in free agency to replace him and his CB1 status are slim because those guys just don’t make it to the open market. Players like D.J. Reed or Charvarius Ward are going to cost more than a reunion with Davis. Is Rasul Douglas an upgrade at age 30? It all sort of adds up to Davis, despite the battle with injuries, worth bringing back to answer most of the questions facing this cornerback room without him.
2. EDGE
Last summer, much was made about the Lions lack of talent opposite of Hutchinson, and at the time, it felt a bit overblown. Plenty bemoaned Detroit’s lack of investment in upgrading that spot, but you couldn’t really fault Holmes at the time, and it’s hard to look back and say he didn’t do enough in his approach.
He took a low-risk, high-upside chance on Marcus Davenport and it just didn’t pan out. No harm, no foul. They needed to find out what they had in Josh Paschal, so there was part of the backup plan should the Davenport experiment crash and burn. It was also clear during training camp that Detroit figured Onwuzurike into the calculus at EDGE as well, so there were contingency plans in case things went sideways… and they did, just more so than anyone could have realistically prepared for and Holmes said as much in his end-of-year presser when asked if they needed to add more pass rushers.
“When you’re down five defensive ends due to injury, then I don’t know who has a sixth, seventh, and eighth effective pass rusher,” Holmes said to the media on Thursday. “So, when you get down that low, then yes you can say [that]…”
Derrick Barnes was lost for the season in the same week, same game as Davenport. John Cominsky never got healthy, Wingo moonlighted out there until he was put on injured reserve after Week 13, and one last-ditch effort to conjure up the magic James Houston once possessed was given up on before the turkey hit the table .
On the last year of his rookie deal, Josh Paschal should be able to make his way onto whatever this roster will look like in July. He’s serviceable depth, but even then, it’s probably not best for this defense to play him as many snaps as he did in 2024 (613, a career-high). Za’Darius Smith was a plus-player for the Lions after the trade deadline, but at 33 by the start of next season, there’s room to wonder if he’s worth the cost ($5.7 million cap hit in 2025, $5.2 million gets kicked into 2026) or if the veteran is open to renegotiate and stay in Detroit.
Top-tier pass rushers find their way to free agency once in a blue moon, and there aren’t any blue chippers in the prime of their career hitting the open market this spring . Picking at 28 doesn’t put Detroit in the ideal spot to get a difference-maker at this position, so is there a guy worth trading up for in the late teens? Jared Verse went at No. 19, and Chop Robinson was selected at No. 21 a year ago. There’s Texas A&M ’s Shemar Stewart who is floating around that spot in mock drafts, but it’s going to cost at least the No. 60 overall pick to facilitate the sort of move up the draft board it would take to nab him. Would it be more their speed to sit and wait for an edge defender at their first-round pick like Stewart’s teammate Nic Scourton?
With questions surrounding both Smith and Onwuzurike’s respective futures in Detroit, it’ll be interesting to see just how aggressive Holmes’ approach will be, but it’s pretty clear there’s a real need to restock and upgrade—and that’s the real reason why EDGE is a higher priority than both interior defensive line and cornerback.
1. Guard
The quickest way to keep the Lions competitive next season is by reaffirming their commitment to the offensive line. Last offseason, the group only needed a quick tune-up at the guard position, and they accomplished as much when they swapped out Jonah Jackson and his big pay day for veteran Kevin Zeitler. But over the course of the season, the group showed signs of wear and tear, and at the most inopportune time, some poor play had a hand in the Lions losing to the Washington Commanders in the Divisional Round.
At age 32, Graham Glasgow allowed more pressures per snap at left guard (46 pressures across 735 pass-blocking snaps) than he did at right guard last year (45 across 632). And for what it’s worth, according to Pro Football Focus, his run blocking took a step back at the opposite guard spot as well, going from an 82.1 run-blocking grade in 2023—fifth-best among all guards in the NFL—to a 60.1 in 2024—42nd out of 73 qualifying guards. Detroit does have an out with Glasgow’s contract this offseason and could opt to save $2.13 million in cap if they choose to cut him. If he were to stay with the Lions for this season, he would carry a $7.43 million cap hit, which currently slates him to be the 11th-highest-paid left guard in the NFL in 2025. Even his positional versatility to fill-in at center isn’t enough for him to cost that much against the cap.
Zeitler will turn 35 before the 2025 season gets underway, and if there’s mutual interest in him returning to Detroit on another deal similar to the one-year, $6 million deal he signed last offseason, it certainly makes it an easier game of musical chairs to play. Zeitler played really well this season, showing virtually no signs of slowing down and allowing just 18 total pressures across 577 pass-blocking snaps.
Colby Sorsdal has been pushed and pulled between the guard and tackle position over his first two seasons but was largely reduced to being a gameday inactive this season. Kayode Awosika is set to be an restricted free agent, but if he’s open to return as depth, you could certainly do worse. Though he isn’t exactly a developmental prospect at this point as he enters his age-27 season.
As far as right now, the Lions have at least one guard position wide open pending Zeitler’s free-agent status, and there needs to be an upgrade over Glasgow’s play from last season. Detroit saw some promising play from rookie Christian Mahogany when he filled in for both Glasgow and Zeitler down the stretch, enough to even consider him a viable starter moving forward. But just because the starters could be set with a simple re-signing and handing Mahogany a starting job, that shouldn’t deter the Lions from investing in the guard position again during the draft considering Zeitler’s age and Detroit’s lack of developmental depth at the position.