The Detroit Lions traded to bring in veteran EDGE Za’Darius Smith from the Cleveland Browns. Adding Smith helps stabilize a Detroit defensive line that has lost both starting EDGEs for the season and also other key reserves at times in recent weeks, leaving the Lions pass rush anemically thin.
Smith is probably a familiar name to Lions fans after he spent the 2019-2021 seasons with the Green Bay Packers, and then also played the 2022 season in Minnesota. He hit double-digit sacks in all three seasons where he played, missing all but one game of the 2021 campaign with a back injury.
Smith openly chastised the Packers organization for how they handled his injury, going so far as to sign with the Vikings specifically to play against Green Bay twice a year. That’s a good peek at the mindset Smith brings into Detroit.
What the Lions are getting in Za’Darius Smith
Smith is an ideal athletic fit for what the Lions covet in an EDGE. The 32-year-old is 6-foot-4 and 275 pounds and can play either standing up or with a hand in the dirt on either side of the formation. In Cleveland the last two seasons, with Jim Schwartz as his defensive coordinator, Smith has primarily played standing up on the side opposite Myles Garrett.
Smith can still “crush the can” as a pass rusher, blasting off the line into the tackle and driving into the backfield. His powerful arms allow him to push off the tackle and make a secondary move to either side. Similar to now-injured Lions starter Marcus Davenport, Smith has enough lateral quickness to help lure a blocker off-balance with a step or a shoulder feign and then the strength to capitalize off it.
He’s probably lost a half-step of quickness and closing burst in the last couple of seasons. That could be more of an issue in Detroit than it was in playing with Myles Garrett, because the Lions lack the finisher to terminate a pressure Smith creates but can’t finish on his own. This play from Week 8 is a good example; Smith (No. 99 at LDE) creates the sack for a teammate:
sack goes to Okoronkwo but that’s a Za’Darius Smith play pic.twitter.com/Q1Hh0991Wr
— Derrik Klassen (@QBKlass) October 30, 2024
Still, Smith has five sacks on the season, including one of Chargers QB Justin Herbert on Sunday. If he gets a paw on the QB (or RB in the backfield), the play typically ends. It is worth noting that his missed tackle rate has spiked up in the last two seasons; per PFF it’s currently above 21 percent in 2024.
He’s been lauded for his leadership at every stop along the way, going back to his time with the Baltimore Ravens. Smith began his career in Baltimore as a fourth-round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. Like current Lions EDGE Josh Paschal, Smith played collegiately at Kentucky.
Expect Smith to start right away and play full-time reps as the new primary EDGE pass rusher in Detroit. As a side benefit, that means players like Paschal and Al-Quadin Muhammad are going to be relied upon for less.