He finally got his edge rusher with the 196th pick of the 2025 NFL Draft, but Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes knows that won’t end the clamoring for him to do more at the position.
“I don’t know,” Holmes said in his end-of-draft news conference. “You guys have been on my ass pretty hard on it. It was just a little bit. I was like, sixth round is that — I don’t know if that suffices.”
The Lions took Boise State defensive end Ahmed Hassanein in the middle of the sixth round, adding an undersized but relentless pass rusher to a defense that ranked 28th in the NFL in sack percentage last season.
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Hassanein had 22 sacks in his final two seasons at Boise State after moving to America from Egypt and picking up football as a teenager. He has a great story and was a fun post-draft interview, but he’s more of a developmental prospect than he is ready to play a big defensive role on a Super Bowl contender as a rookie.
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The Lions return Aidan Hutchinson and Marcus Davenport as their starting defensive ends, but both are coming off season-ending injuries. Outside linebacker Derrick Barnes also is returning from a knee injury that cut short his 2024 season, and Josh Paschal and Al-Quadin Muhammad are the Lions’ top edge-rushing reserves.
Holmes, who had a playful back and forth with reporters on Day 2 of the draft about his lack of urgency to draft an edge rusher, compared the Lions’ situation at defensive end to the one they navigated at cornerback in 2021-23. After passing on outside cornerbacks in his first three drafts, Holmes spent first- and second-round picks on the position last season after trading for one starter and signing another in free agency.
“I’m not saying this just cause you guys are on my ass about it, but some things just have to line up right,” he said. “You can go into it and say we want to really beef up, get better O-line, D-line. If it doesn’t line up right, then you just can’t do it.”
In what was widely considered a deep draft at defensive end this year, things did not align for Holmes to take a pass rusher early. Five edge rushers went in the first 26 picks, before the Lions took defensive tackle Tyleik Williams at No. 28, and four more went in the middle of the second round.
Holmes said after Day 2 the Lions simply had players at other positions rated higher than the remaining edge rushers when they were on the clock.
Asked after Day 3 if he expects trade possibilities to materialize in the coming week to add help at defensive end, Holmes said “it’s an ongoing, nonstop relentless climb for just building the roster in general,” but gave no indication anything was in the works.
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“It’s not a position that’s off limits,” he said. “We’re always trying to look to get better. Sometimes you just, there’s not better out there past maybe the current starters you have, there’s not better available versus the current depth you have. Yeah, we’re always trying to look for better and I definitely would not be doing my job if I did not continue to look at every single avenue and which we’ll continue to do for sure.”
More immediate, perhaps, is trying to get Hutchinson signed to a deal that likely will make him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history.
Hutchinson had a team-high 7½ sacks in five games last season before breaking his leg. The Lions exercised the fifth-year option on his rookie contract this week and would like to sign him to an extension sooner than later.
Holmes declined to say if Hutchinson and his agent would prefer to wait till another edge rusher in line for a big deal, Micah Parsons, gets his contract done. But the Lions have left little doubt about their commitment to Hutchinson despite his health.
“That’s a fair question, but unfortunately we just don’t have any control over that. If (Parsons) gets his deal done, he gets his deal done,” Holmes said. “But we have our internal communication and process and plan in place. So you just unfortunately can’t control those other things. I know you try to get in front of some things like that, but you obviously don’t have control.”
Dave Birkett is the author of the book, “Detroit Lions: An Illustrated Timeline.”
Order your copyhere.
Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him onBluesky,X andInstagram at @davebirkett.
