The Lions kept 11 defensive linemen, and the reason may be much bigger than roster depth
Detroit went unusually heavy up front, but the combination of edge rushers, big ends and movable interior defenders suggests Kelvin Sheppard may be building something more flexible than a traditional rotation.
The Detroit Lions kept 11 defensive linemen on their 53-man roster. That number jumped out at me, and the more I look at it, the more I think Detroit is telling us something about what this defense is going to look like in 2026.
For context, the Lions only kept nine defensive linemen on the 53-man roster last year. Add in the four defensive linemen on the practice squad, and Detroit is keeping 15 defensive linemen around. That’s a lot of bodies at one position group. Lions coach Dan Campbell said this was the hardest room for him to figure out when it came to cuts, and that he wished he could keep all of them. Kind of looks like he just decided to do that.
You’re not dressing 11 guys every Sunday, so why keep them?
You’re not going to have an 11-man defensive line rotation every week. So why was it important enough to the Lions that they use two extra roster spots on this position? The answer, I think, is in the makeup of the group itself.
Look at who they kept. Aidan Hutchinson, DJ Wonnum, Derrick Moore, Ahmed Hassanein, and Eric O’Neill on the edge. On the inside, you’ve got Alim McNeill, Tyleik Williams, Levi Onwuzurike, Mekhi Wingo, Tyler Lacy, and Skyler Gill-Howard.
What stands out isn’t just the number. It’s that this is a lot of different types of guys. If you were just trying to build a traditional defensive line depth chart, you don’t need all of these players. You need your starters, your backups, maybe a developmental guy or two. This looks different. This looks like a group that was built specifically so defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard can change what the defensive front looks like without necessarily having to completely change the personnel on the field.
Maybe we’ve been asking the wrong question about Hutchinson’s running mate
We’ve been talking about who’s going to be the guy opposite Hutchinson for a long time. Who’s the other edge rusher? Maybe we’ve been asking the wrong question. Maybe there isn’t one guy. Maybe there’s an entire idea here.
You’ve got Wonnum, Moore, Hassanein, and O’Neill, but you’ve also got guys like Lacy and Onwuzurike who can give you different looks on the edge as your big end. Hassanein can play the big end role as well. You can move guys inside, you can move guys outside. You can make one front look completely different from another front.
Instead of saying, here’s Hutchinson and here’s the other defensive end who’s going to play 800 snaps, maybe Detroit is saying they’re going to throw three or four different guys at that spot depending on what they’re trying to accomplish.
I actually like that idea a lot. Let’s be real here: whoever is playing opposite Hutchinson is going to get great opportunities. The offense is going to know where Hutchinson is at all times. They’re going to slide protection toward him. They’re going to chip him. They’re going to use the running back, the tight end, whatever they can do to prevent Hutchinson from ruining their afternoon. That means somebody else is going to get a one-on-one.
Last year, the Lions had Al-Quadin Muhammad, who was kind of the only guy who could take advantage of that one-on-one. Now Detroit is saying they have three or four guys who can take advantage of one-on-ones, they can play all of them whenever they want, and they can all do different things.
Kacy Rodgers already told us this was coming
Lions defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers talked earlier this offseason about having the ability to put different combinations of defensive linemen on the field. Maybe you’ve got four guys who are essentially edge rushers out there at the same time. Maybe you’ve got three defensive tackles and one edge. Maybe you’re getting into different fronts depending on down and distance, who you’re playing, and what personnel the offense has on the field.
That’s why keeping 11 starts making more sense. These aren’t just 11 names on a depth chart. They’re tools. You’ve got different body types, different strengths, and guys who can play multiple spots. When you start combining all of that, you can get pretty creative.
You could have Hutchinson, McNeill, Tyleik Williams, and Wonnum in a fairly normal-looking front. Then you get to third and long, and suddenly maybe you’ve got Hutchinson with Moore, McNeill inside, Gill-Howard inside with his pass rush juice, Wingo moving around, and Lacy playing outside on one snap and inside on the next. That’s the kind of thing that makes an offensive line have to communicate. You don’t have to send six guys at a quarterback to create confusion. Sometimes you can rush four and create confusion with the four guys you choose and what you do with them.
This isn’t about abandoning the run defense
I don’t think the Lions are suddenly saying forget stopping the run. Dan Campbell could not have been more clear that Detroit does not shoot gaps. The Lions want to be physical. They still want to control the line of scrimmage. They want to stop the run. That’s their No. 1 thing. Sheppard has talked about getting the defense back to being one of the better run defenses in football. That’s not changing.
What could be changing is how many different ways they can get there. That’s the distinction. This isn’t going from big defensive lineman to small defensive lineman. It’s going from a defensive front where you kind of know what everybody’s job is and where everybody is going to line up to one where there’s a lot more flexibility.
Gill-Howard is a great example. He doesn’t look like the traditional massive defensive tackle. He’s around 280 pounds, but he’s athletic, has a linebacker background, and showed this summer he can get after the quarterback from the interior. That’s a very specific tool. You’re probably not asking him to go out there and be DJ Reader. But if you’re in a passing situation, you’ve got Hutchinson drawing all kinds of attention on the outside, and then you’ve got an explosive interior guy getting one-on-ones against a guard? Now you’re talking. Wingo has that ability as well. O’Neill showed some things on the inside and outside. Lacy gives you that body type and somebody who could potentially work both spots.
I don’t think the story is that Detroit has 11 good defensive linemen. We don’t know that yet. Some of these guys are young. Some of them have barely played NFL football. The story is Detroit has 11 defensive linemen who could potentially give them different answers. That’s a much different thing. The rotation is going to matter a lot this year, maybe more than it ever has.
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