The one free agent the Lions might regret not taking a shot at
The Detroit Lions passed on a lot of free agents, but this is the guy they might regret passing on the most
Free agency is pretty much over for the Detroit Lions. They may look to add one or two more guys before the 2026 NFL Draft, but this is probably it.
With that in mind, I really wanted to take a look at the free agency class and think about the player that Detroit probably should have gone after, but didn’t. It’s not Maxx Crosby or Trey Hendrickson, but it is an edge rusher.
The Lions might regret not signing Joseph Ossai
This one made a ton of sense to me from the jump. Ossai has everything the Lions want. He’s young. He’s just 25 years old. So he fits the Lions’ youth movement they’re putting a lot of work into right now.
He can play really well against the run. Pro Football Focus gave him a 70.7 run defense grade for the 2025 season. That’s 25th among all edges. The Bengals made sure to get him out there on plenty of run defense snaps, too. He played 207 of them in 2025. He played 615 total snaps.
He can pass rush. He’s not elite, but he had 43 pressures and five sacks in 2025 and 31 pressures and five sacks in 2024. These all came with him being part of the Bengals’ rotation. He showed in late 2025 that he could be a starter and get things done in that department. He played really well down the stretch.
The other thing is that he didn’t break the bank. Ossai got a three-year deal worth $34.5 million. That’s a little more pricey than the Lions have paid for an extra edge in recent years, but we’re talking about $11.5 million a year. That’s not a ton, and it’s a player that Detroit would have been able to start and have as a part of their rotation for years to come.
Instead, it was Aaron Glenn and the Jets who wound up signing him. That actually feels like another reinforcement behind the idea that he would have fit the Lions perfectly.
At the end of the day, the Lions might go out and find their next starting edge in the draft, and everyone will forget this article ever existed. That’ll be just fine for Detroit and their fans. But from where we’re standing right now, the Lions missed out on a guy who would have really fit them.
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