The Detroit Lions needed to take a swing at the trade deadline this past November after losing Aidan Hutchinson, and they did that when they traded with the Cleveland Browns for Za’Darius Smith. 

Smith made an impact in Detroit immediately. He became the team’s lead pass rusher and in eight games he put up 36 pressures and five sacks. Not Aidan Hutchinson numbers, but not bad at all. 

Speaking of Hutchinson, the expectation for Smith has been that he’s definitely going to stay in Detroit in 2025 and pair up with the Lions’ top pass rusher. After all, he’s already under contract in 2025 anyway, He might as well stay, right?

The problem is Smith’s contract structure. He’s currently in line to get paid $8.99 million in bonuses on the third day of the new league year, which is March 15. 
The bonuses jump Smith’s salary up to $11 million in 2025 if he plays for the Lions. So that’s $11 million to play in 2025, but there’s more: If he’s not re-signed after 2025 he’ll count $5,242,500 against the cap in 2026 even though he’s not on the team.

It’s because of the void years tacked onto his deal, which create another issue on their own. It makes it cheaper upfront, but boil it all down, the Lions have to eventually pay the tab on the money they kick down the road, which is what void years ensure. If the Lions re-sign Smith after 2025, then the void years will get tacked onto the end of whatever the length of the new deal represents.

That is a lot of money for a 33-year-old edge rusher. While the Lions are in good standing with cap space next season, this is a lot of money that they could clear off the books to help them get younger at the position. 

There is a quick way out of having to pay any of this money. If the Lions were to part with him before the new league year starts, they wouldn’t have to pay any dead money and they’d save over $5.7 million against the cap. If Smith is on the Lions on the third day of the new league year all of his bonuses kick in and he suddenly becomes a pretty expensive player. 

There’s a lot of thought behind the idea that the Lions may look to go scorched Earth on their pass rushers and start over again with maybe one or two guys sticking around. Those guys being Josh Paschal and obviously Aidan Hutchinson. 

The Lions would have a lot easier time getting this done without that $11 million contract on the books. 

Of course, the other option is that the Lions work with Smith to restructure his deal, but you still have to consider that Smith will be 33-years-old when the 2025 season starts and there’s not really a lot of room to restructure him and push his deal out farther because he’s just going to keep getting older and who knows how much longer he plays. So the Lions might cut bait now and rebuild the spot. 

We’ll see what happens in the coming month, but if this is happening, it’s going to likely happen sooner rather than later.