ALLEN PARK — It’s been a quiet start to free agency for the Detroit Lions, who have spent most of their resources on guys they already know inside their locker room. Now even their first external signing is a guy they know well, too.
The Lions are signing edge rusher Marcus Davenport to a one-year contract, according to NFL Network. Davenport was picked 14th overall by New Orleans in the 2018 draft, back when Dan Campbell was that team’s assistant head coach, and Aaron Glenn was its defensive backs coach.
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Davenport was named to the All-Rookie team that year, although has never delivered gaudy numbers in the pass rush. He had nine sacks with New Orleans in 2021, but just half a sack the year after that and moved on to Minnesota last season. He wound up playing in just four games for the Vikings because of ankle injuries, but had two sacks and four quarterback hits in those games.
Davenport joins a pass rush that is led by Aidan Hutchinson, and hasn’t gotten much else beyond that. Charles Harris opened last season on the other edge, but was a healthy scratch down the stretch and is hitting free agency this week. Same goes for Romeo Okwara, while Julian Okwara has already been released.
Detroit needs help, but general manager Brad Holmes said he would avoid the risks of free agency by prioritizing in-house guys that he knows best. In Davenport, he’s getting a guy his coaching staff knows too.
“I think that between Brad and myself, the success we’ve had in places that we’ve been has really been that way,” head coach Dan Campbell said at the combine. “That’s what it comes from. You wanna be a good team? You have to draft well and then you re-sign those guys. I mean, that’s your core. And then you find the right pieces in free agency to fill in with. So, we both believe that. I think you gotta be careful (in free agency). You wanna go spend top dollar on a free agent that’s not your own, you wanna know everything about that player before you bring him into your locker room. You can see the tape, whereas your own guys, you pay top dollar for your own guys that are worthy from production because you know everything about ‘em, right? It’s just — it’s something we believe in, it’s something we’re gonna continue to do.”
The Lions re-signed guard Graham Glasgow to a three-year, $20 million deal earlier in the day, plus got earlier deals down with cornerback Emmanuel Moseley (one year, up to $2.875 million), special teams ace Jalen Reeves-Maybin (two years, $7.5 million), kicker Michael Badgley (one year, $1.3 million), tight end Shane Zylstra (one year, $940,000) and running back Zonovan Knight (one year, $985,000).
Otherwise, they’ve been mostly bystanders during the hours of free agency — along with heavyweights like Kansas City, San Francisco and Baltimore, it’s worth noting, each of whom asl appeared in conference championship games this year.
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