29. Detroit Lions: Cashius Howell, EDGE, Texas A&M
I can’t help but wonder if the Lions, knowing what they know now, would go back to the beginning of the 2025 offseason and do more to upgrade their pass rush overall.
With the salary cap in place, there’s really only so much you can do to upgrade your roster, but the Lions had a chance to win a Super Bowl last season and their depth defensively ultimately ended up costing them that chance. General manager Brad Holmes simply didn’t do enough, on paper, to upgrade that pass rush this offseason, and we could be looking at the Lions making in-season additions or even a big trade at the deadline to upgrade off the edge.
For the time being, we’re going to continue projecting this team to go after pass rushers early in the 2026 NFL Draft, and this week’s flavor of the week is Cashius Howell, who had four sacks and nine tackles for loss last year on a loaded Texas A&M defensive front.
30. Buffalo Bills: Deontae Lawson, LB, Alabama
The Buffalo Bills have had a really interesting offseason in 2025. Brandon Beane has rebuilt his defensive front pretty substantially, bringing in at least six significant new contributors to the front line via free agency and the NFL Draft.
Joey Bosa, Larry Ogunjobi, Michael Hoecht, TJ Sanders, Landon Jackson, and Deone Walker bring size, versatility, and playmaking ability to a defensive front that is trying to do what the Philadelphia Eagles just did in the Super Bowl last year against the Chiefs.
The next step after completely revamping that defensive front is to find more playmakers for the second level, and Deontae Lawson is one of a number of off-ball linebackers receiving 1st-round consideration right now who could feast behind that talented of a defensive line.