Lions' surprising roster decision drops the biggest Za'Darius Smith hint yet

The Detroit Lions finally have their 53-man roster for the 2025 NFL season. The team announced their full slate of cuts and waives on Tuesday afternoon, which was the deadline for all 32 NFL teams to have their final rosters in place for the year.

A big area of need for the Lions as they head into the year is at their pass rush. While they have a phenom in Aidan Hutchinson returning as the teams' best pass rusher, and they have a healthy Marcus Davenport in tow, they could still use some reinforcements at the pass rush to take the pressure off of the secondary.

If there's one thing the Lions didn't do with this finalized roster, though, it's keep on many EDGE players. Ahmed Hassanein was waived with an injury settlement, while the team also waived promising UDFA Nate Lynn and Isaac Ukwu.

These moves continue to point in the direction of Za'Darius Smith, who has been reportedly ramping back up to action and is waiting to get a deal done soon with a contender.

Lions 53-man roster indicates another move at pass rush is coming

The Lions, who announced their roster moves to get them down to 53 players on their team site, waived or released the following defensive linemen:

EDGE Ahmed Hassanein
EDGE Nate Lynn
DL Brodric Martin
DL Myles Adams
EDGE Mitchell Agude
DL Keith Cooper Jr.

This leaves the Lions with just Josh Paschal (who is on the IR), EDGE Al-Quadin Muhammad, Alim McNeill (PUP list), Tyleik Williams, Mekhi Wingo, DJ Reader, Roy Lopez, Pat O'Connor, Chris Smith, Davenport, and Hutchinson on their defensive line. Not counting those who are injured, that's a D-line room of just nine players.

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Notably, the Lions' initial 53-man roster is not 53 men at all - it's 50. They've still got three empty roster spots available, which indicates that they plan on adding some new faces to the fold shortly. Smith, who has reportedly been getting contacted by contenders this week ahead of these cuts, seems like the most likely recipient of a spot on the Lions roster.

But, who else could fill those final two slots. It'd be hard to imagine the team filling in anywhere else other than at their defensive line, and there's at least one prominent name on the trade market right now that could make sense to fill one of those holes. But, it's unlikely Detroit decides to spend draft capital and their precious cap space to retain such a Dallas Cowb-- I mean, hypothetical player.

With such a need for pass rush, and with Smith phoning home just how much he'd love to return to Detroit after such a great 2024 season with them, it's clear that Detroit is far from done as it pertains to their defensive line and its final look.

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