Veteran edge rusher Za’Darius Smith said in June that he’d like to return to the Lions for the 2025 season, but he remains a free agent a couple of weeks into training camp.
The door to coming back to Detroit is not closed, however. General Manager Brad Holmes said on 97.1 The Ticket on Wednesday that they have remained in touch with Smith and that they’re amenable to running it back with a player they acquired in a trade last season.
“Za’Darius did a lot of good things last year for us and we said we’re going to keep in contact with his agent, but everything’s not just one-sided,” Holmes said. “Za’Darius has expectations, the team has expectations, so sometimes it takes a while for those things to get on the same page. Especially a guy that’s been in the league as long as he has, I’m not saying that he doesn’t want to be in training camp, but if he misses some time, there’s obviously still interest there and we’ve been keeping in touch.”
Smith had four sacks in eight games for the Lions after coming over from Cleveland. Given Holmes’s comments, it seems like any return will wait until the start of the season is a little closer.
