Welcome to the secondary market of NFL free agency. Last week, all the top players got signed away by teams and the Lions were pretty active as well. They signed five different players, none of which were pass rushers. 

To Lions fans, that's the one thing this team needs to survive and advance to the Super Bowl. While the top names are out, there are still good edges put there who can help the Lions. Here are five guys to watch:

Azeez Ojulari

If you ask us, this is the top guy left for the Lions. In Ojulari the Lions would get a 25-year-old player who has demonstrated time and again that he can get to the quarterback. He's had 22 sacks in four seasons and he hasn't been the Giants since his rookie season. Since then he's had to contend with Kayvon Thibodeaux and Brian Burns. In Detroit Ojulari could take over the starting job and show what he's got. 

Za'Darius Smith

This one isn't as easy as it looks. I know there's a lot of Lions fans that are out there hoping that he would come back on a cheaper deal, but the fact that the Lions released him kind of shows that maybe he wasn't willing to restructure his deal to make it more cost effective for the Lions, It could happen, but at this point I would expect him to be somewhere else in 2025. The Lions did the right thing here when they got out of that expensive void year in 2026.

Matt Judon

You're taking on a veteran player here and his best days are kind of in the past, but the past wasn't that long ago. In 2022 he had 69 pressures and 17 sacks. Then he suffered a season-ending injury in 2023, and in 2024 with the Falcons, it was kind of a down year. At this point you're signing him in the hopes that he can be somewhere in the middle of that production. 

Al-Quadin Muhammad

It's not hard to see this one happening again, but if you're looking at Muhammad to be the big fix opposite Hutchinson, you might be disappointed. He's a great depth piece and rotational guy and bringing him back would be smart. Just don't expect him to start if that happens. 

Dennis Gardeck

Gardeck is coming off an ACL injury in Week 7, but he should be ready to go either by the start of training camp or sometime during training camp. This guy has quietly been pretty good out there in Arizona. He was playing well up until Week 7, but in 2023 he had a big season with 42 pressures and six sacks. He had 28 hurries as well. This guy gets in quarterbacks' faces and moves them off their spot. Worth a look on a one-year deal.

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