Lions Must Avoid Trade for Joey Bosa Despite Super Bowl Ambitions Amid NFL Rumors

The Detroit Lions came within a half of playing in their first Super Bowl this past season and will be looking to acquire one or two key pieces to ensure next year does not end shy of the sport's biggest game.

One such player could be Los Angeles Chargers defensive end Joey Bosa, per Jason La Canfora of The Washington Post.

While Bosa has the potential to be a game-wrecker when at his best, there is an argument to be made that he has not been at his best since at least 2019. He has also not been healthy, missing 14 games over the last two seasons.

He has played 16 games only three times in his eight years in the league.

On top of that, should he be traded without restructuring his contract, the cap hit would be a massive $36.6 million.

That is entirely too much money to commit to a player whose availability has been as inconsistent as his play. Three of the last four seasons have ended with single-digit sacks. Those were all injury-shortened seasons, but therein lies the problem.

The greatest asset any player can bring with him is availability and throughout his career, Bosa has not been available.

When he is, he has balled out, with double-digit sacks in each of the years in which he played the entire season. Unfortunately, the young and Super Bowl-hungry Lions cannot afford to bring him on board opposite the excellent Aidan Hutchinson and hope he can contribute.

Detroit has a good thing going right now. It is a young team with unlimited upside and a chance to be a force in the NFC for the foreseeable future. They have championship expectations and a swagger to match.

What they do not have is an adequate counterpart to Hutchinson, who had 11.5 sacks in 2023 while no other player on the defensive side of the ball had more than half of those.

The closest behind him? Alim McNeill, who managed just five. Alex Anzalone follows with three.

Not exactly inspiring fear in the opposing quarterbacks, eh?

The team needs help off the edge, but they would be better suited to scour the draft for depth or search free agency for a more affordable player with bigger upside, like Chase Young of the San Francisco 49ers, rather than sinking a large sum of money into a player who may not even see the field for the majority of the season.

Bosa still has explosion off the line and when he is right, he can dominate. Unfortunately, we have not seen it enough in recent years to have any sort of faith that it can be there consistently.