What to expect from Za'Darius Smith in his Lions debut against the Texans Sunday, will he play and how much he will play
The Detroit Lions finally made a big splash on Tuesday ahead of the NFL trade deadline when they traded a 2025 Fifth-round pick and a 2026 sixth-round pick to the Browns for Za'Darius Smith and a 2026 sixth-round pick. Now the big questions that so many Lions fans want to know the answer to is […]
The Detroit Lions finally made a big splash on Tuesday ahead of the NFL trade deadline when they traded a 2025 Fifth-round pick and a 2026 sixth-round pick to the Browns for Za'Darius Smith and a 2026 sixth-round pick.
Now the big questions that so many Lions fans want to know the answer to is will he play on Sunday and how much will he play on Sunday? We may have the answer to both those questions already.
It's not uncommon for a team to make a trade and then take their time with the guy they traded for. Usually that might mean they don't play that first game and if they do, they play somewhat of a limited snap count. In the Lions case, you should probably expect that Smith plays against the Texans on Sunday and plays the whole game.
The big reason to believe that is that before the trade went down, Lions head coach Dan Campbell said the Lions are looking for someone that they feel comfortable enough to plug right in to their defense.
“I do. I think if it is somebody that makes sense that we’re looking at, I think that’s the idea. ‘We need to get this guy in as fast as possible." Campbell said. "And if it wasn’t, it would be more – well look, I think we’re going to find a way to get this guy in immediately. I was going to say some of the terminology, well even if it’s limited, I think you’re trying to get that player going as fast as possible. But I don’t want to tell you, ‘Absolutely, they would walk right in.’ But I think that would be the idea.”
You could make an argument that if the Lions had traded for a younger player that they might take their time with him, but this is a seasoned vet in the NFL that's playing really good football right now. It doesn't make much sense that the Lions would decide to cool their heals with him.
He should be out there starting on Sunday night and while he might not have a full grasp on the playbook or the terminology, he has a full grasp on being a pretty dang good football player. Right now that's all the Lions need him to be. Everything else can wait.
Detroit Lions Mailbag: Will the Lions regret not trading for a second edge rusher?
Welcome to Week 10 of the Detroit Lions mailbag. The NFL trade deadline has passed and now it's time to get back to regular old football. We got a lot of questions this week, let's jump into them. I think Lions fans should have super high confidence in Dan Campbell. The thing about these really […]
