Detroit Lions sign reigning CFL top defensive player ALLEN PARK – The Detroit Lions have signed the reigning best defensive player in the Canadian Football League.
Mathieu Betts, whom the Lions invited to a free agent tryout in December, is a free agent contract and not a futures contract as is the case after the Super Bowl.
Betts spent the last two seasons playing for the BC Lions. In 18 games with the Canadian Lions, he had 18 sacks and four forced fumbles. And it was a marked improvement over his seven-sack campaign for them in 2022.
The pass rusher spent the 2018 preseason having coffee with the Chicago Bears. Betts made his final round of cuts before heading north to Edmonton to play.
The Montreal, Quebec native was also featured at the 2019 East-West Shrine College Football Showcase after starring at Laval University.
Adding pass rushers should be one of the team’s primary target areas ahead of free agency and the draft. It will be interesting to see if Betts can make some noise in that room once the offseason program and training camp begins.
The Lions were a one-man spectacle when it came to rushing the passer this season. Aidan Hutchinson had 78 more pressure points than any other teammate.
Alim McNeill, an inside linebacker who missed four games, was second, and Alex Anzalone, an off-ball linebacker who missed one game, was fourth in pressures.
Hutchinson took this group from Week 1 in Kansas City to the final play of the NFC title game in San Francisco. And the second-year pro ranked second among all defenders with 121 pressures, behind Nick Bosa.
Josh Paschal has shown glimpses of bringing more. But the former second-rounder seems best suited for a versatile inside-outside role. John Cominsky also fits into this picture, as does Paschalis.
And James Houston was back on the field for the final in San Francisco. His rookie campaign is hard to forget. But he also struggled to emerge as the team tinkered with his role on the field, so he’s a name to keep an eye on once the Lions return to the field.
But veterans Charles Harris and Romeo Okwara face an uncertain future after taking a pay cut last year to turn the company around. Harris was a healthy scratch for a while late in the season.
He’s a free agent-in-waiting and those stacked inactives don’t bode well for his future. And Okwara, another pending free agent, had just 17 pressures in 19 games played.
