John Niyo: With Za'Darius Smith, Lions add a jewel to their quest for ultimate crown

ALLEN PARK, Mich.— The Detroit Lions already sit on one throne as the reigning NFC North champs.

But if they’re going to keep that crown, and perhaps grab a championship ring as well, it makes sense to add a little royalty, doesn’t it?

That’s what Lions general manager Brad Holmes has done here this week, in a way. And the way veteran defensive tackle D.J. Reader sees it, that’s part of what makes Detroit’s trade-deadline deal for edge rusher Za’Darius Smith such a steal, acquired from Cleveland on Tuesday along with a 2026 seventh-round pick in exchange for a 2025 fifth-rounder and a 2026 sixth-rounder.

Not only are they adding a savvy, 10-year pro and three-time Pro Bowler to bolster a roster that lost both of its starting defensive ends — first Marcus Davenport, and then Aidan Hutchinson — in the first six weeks of the season. They’re also springing Smith from an NFL dungeon in Cleveland and bringing him back to his former football fiefdom. Smith was a part of four straight division-title teams in Green Bay (2019-21) and Minnesota (2022) before spending the last year and a half in Cleveland.

“He’s the real King of the North,” Reader said. “It's a division he knows well. He’s been here. He's kind of stayed in the North division, which is cool.”

So is getting a chance to jump from a last-place team in the AFC North to a Super Bowl contender in the NFC North, especially for a player like Smith, who has made the playoffs in each of the last six seasons — for three different teams.

“Yeah, I would say so, going from 2-7 to 7-1?” Reader laughed. “He came in here the other day and he was super-excited. So, I’m sure he’s ready to roll. … It's a blessing, man. It's also a testament to him being a great player in this league for so long. He definitely has made every team he has been on better. So it’s just good to have him here.”

And even though he was here one day and gone the next — the Lions opted to give Smith a couple of days off in what should’ve been his bye week with the Browns — he’ll be back in time to practice with his new team Friday. He’s expected to play Sunday night in Houston, too, though it’ll likely be in a reduced role for his debut.

“I thought that was important,” head coach Dan Campbell said Wednesday, when asked about giving the 32-year-old Smith a break before he gets acclimated to his new team. “I mean there’s certainly a place to use him. We’ll see what it is when he gets back here on Friday.”

His teammates already know what they’re getting in Smith, who’s only two years removed from a 10-sack season with the Vikings in 2022. At 32, he may be past his prime, but the 6-foot-4, 275-pounder had five sacks in nine games for Cleveland this fall and both Holmes and Campbell saw more than enough from his game tape this fall to “feel like he fits us.”

No player on the market at the deadline was going to replace Hutchinson’s pressure-packed production off the edge. And Campbell admitted Wednesday the Lions, who also lost linebacker Derrick Barnes to a potential season-ending injury in Week 3, may have learned a lesson or two about roster construction while canvassing the league in search of help.

"When you’re in this position, trying to acquire pass rushers is a different deal,” the coach said. “It’s not like a receiver or a running back. It just is, because there’s a premium on it. Teams don’t want to give them up. … I can’t tell you the number of calls and inquiries (we made), and the bottom line is it’s hard to find a pass rusher, especially in the season. Most teams aren’t going to give them up, they don’t care what you say, which is smart.”

All that said, this does like a smart solution for the Lions. In adding Smith, who is under contract through 2025, they’ve shored up some of their pass-rush concerns while also strengthening a dominant run game that had shown some signs of slippage the past two weeks against Tennessee and Green Bay.

“He's a guy who has done it all, and done it the right way for a long time,” Reader said. “I mean, you’ve got guys in this league who either play run or pass. You don't really find many guys like him that do it all, just like how we kind of had in Hutch. (Smith) has always been hell in the run game and super physical in the pass game. So, it's awesome to add that to the team.”

The Lions will add another player to help there with Josh Paschal set to return after a two-week absence following surgery to remove a benign mass from his shoulder. (Paschal dealt with skin cancer in 2018 while he was in college.)

And when asked Wednesday if he thought the Lions had enough talent now on the edge for this team to get where it wants to go, Paschal practically jumped offside.

“For sure, I think we do,” he said. “I know we do. I know we have everything we need in this room going forward.”

And while no one’s promising a coronation at this point, the fact that Holmes was active at the deadline did send a message to the locker room.

“Yeah, we're committed to winning,” Reader said. “They see how hard we’re working hard, and they’re working hard along with us. Everybody’s got the same goal, to go out there and win a championship.”

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