Welcome to the dead zone Lions fans. OTA's and Mandatory mini camp is over and for the next few weeks, things are going to be quiet in Lions land as we prepare for the start of training camp.

As we make our way towards camp, we're going to do a deep dive into the Lions entire roster. We'll be doing it section by section and player by player and go over the expectations for each player going into camp.

So far we've already covered interior defensive linemen, today we'll be covering defensive ends. 

Aidan Hutchinson 

The second overall pick of the 2022 NFL Draft really showed up in his rookie year and was in the running for rookie of the year when it was all said and done. The Expectation for him is that he takes the next step towards superstardom at camp. This may be the easiest expectation to come up with. 

James Houston

The biggest surprise of the 2022 season had to be sixth round pick James Houston. After sitting out most of the season on the teams practice squad, Houston debuted on Thanksgiving day with a couple of sacks on Josh Allen. He never looked back. Houston wound up finishing the season with eight total sacks. 

While Houston showed he had amazing bend as pass rusher, there's still more that needs to be seen from him. Right now he's in a great position to be able to come in specifically to rush the passer, but the expectation should be that he grow his game in order to be come a guy that the Lions can trust to be out there all the time. Let's see what kind of work he can do against the run during camp. 

 Romeo Okwara

Two years ago it looked liek Okwara was going to be the Lions top edge rusher for a while. A torn achilles wound up taking him out and causing him to miss nearly the entire 2021 season. he was able to return in 2022 and he did make some plays down the stretch. 

Previous to the offseason he seemed like a candidate to be a cap casualty. Okwara instead took a paycut to stay with the team. This years training camp is going to be all about whether or not Okwara can still play after dealing with such a rough injury.  Ideally he can return to form and give Aidan Hutchinson a nice running mate.

Charles Harris

Similar to Okwara, Harris looked like a guy that could really help the Lions in the future. It was expected that he would be a great compliment to Hutchinson in 2022, but that never quite materialized. He also took a bit of a pay cut to stay in Detroit. 

The expectation for Harris is that he could find himself being one of the odd men out. There's two guys behind him that could very well take big enough steps to find themselves in bigger roles. Harris could still do enough to make a roster spot, but right now it's hard to see the team not go with the younger guys.

Josh Paschal

Paschal is definitely one of those younger guys. A second round pick in last years draft, Paschal showed some real flashes once he got on the field after getting healthy. 

The expectation should be that with a full offseason and full training camp, we should see Paschal become a bigger part of the Lions plans at defensive end. Especially when it comes to stopping the run. Something that was his specialty at Kentucky. 

John Cominsky

Cominsky really came out of nowhere last season. The Lions claimed him off of waivers right before camp in 2022 and he wound starting eight games for them. Cominsky then took to social media and encouraged his followers to go tell the Lions he wanted to come back.

Now that the Lions helped him get that done, it's time for Cominsky to build upon his successes from last year and make sure that he can continue to carve out a role for himself on this team. He should have a head start now that he doesn't have to play with a club on his hand. 

Julian Okwara 

Maybe its just me, but I just haven't seen it from the younger Okwara yet. He has shown some flashes. Especially with his walk off sack of Justin Fields in 2022. Still, he just feels so behind the eight ball at this point. 

At the time he was drafted in the third round of the 2020 draft, he felt like a big steal considering how well he played at Notre Dame. Entering year four, it's time to really show something. 

Zach Morton

I'll be deadly honsest, I don't know much about the undrafted rookie from Akron. I do know that he will undoubtedly have his work cut out for him if he hopes to make a roster spot in an already crowded field. Let's see how he handles it. 

Featured image by Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK