3 key stats highlighting Za’Darius Smith’s impact on Detroit Lions defense

The trade deadline loomed large immediately after the season-ending injury to Aidan Hutchinson back in Week 6. It was hard to imagine the way the Detroit Lions would pick up the pieces on defense and put together a pass rush without their biggest piece of the puzzle. After all, Hutchinson was arguably playing like the best edge defender in football through the first quarter of the season.

Fans, nonetheless, dreamed big with hopes for names like Myles Garrett or Maxx Crosby to fill the massive void, but of the more realistic options available to help revitalize the Lions’ edge defense, Za’Darius Smith stood out as the obvious candidate.

Brad Holmes made that happen early on Tuesday morning, finalizing a trade for the veteran edge rusher with the Cleveland Browns. Here are the key numbers to understand how Smith’s impact will be noticed and measured when the Lions’ defense takes the field.

5.6% run stop rate

At 6-foot-4, 274 pounds, Smith fits the exact profile for what the Lions look for in their defensive ends, and not just from a pass-rushing standpoint. Setting aside the Cowboys game (Dallas has the 25th-ranked rush offense DVOA), Detroit has struggled a bit in stopping the run since Week 4—especially when you consider how stout their run defense has been for over a year and a half.

Enter the big-bodied Smith who has the ability to set the edge, take on double teams, and make plays—impact plays, even—when defending the run. Now, it’s not to say he’s going to be a game wrecker in this respect, but at the age of 32, Smith has primarily been made into more of a pass rusher than anything else. 34% of his snap share this year has been in run defense, a slight uptick from his 30% mark from 2023. In 2022, the Minnesota Vikings deployed him in run defense on just 31% of his defensive snaps, so this isn’t something that was unique to his usage in Cleveland.

That said, Smith finished t-35th out of 128 qualifying edge defenders in run stop rate (7.1%) during his 2022 season with the Vikings per PFF. Last year, in his first season with the Browns, he finished 93rd out of 120 qualifying edge defenders (5.1%), and this year, Smith finds himself t-61st out of 118 (5.6%). While those numbers may not be eye-popping at first glance, some context is important. Hutchinson, on 77 run defense snaps, had just five stops and a 5.5% run stop rate before his injury. Of the current defensive linemen on this Lions team, only Josh Paschal (6.5%, 48 run defense snaps), Alim McNeill (6.3%, 101 snaps), and Levi Onwuzurike (5.7%, 109 snaps) sport better run stop rate numbers, but Smith’s addition will be a welcome sight for a group that had slipped a bit in recent weeks—and help in shoring up the run defense along Detroit’s front line.

19.1% pass rush win rate

After three weeks, where Detroit’s edge defenders forced just three quarterback hits in total—all in Week 8 against the Titans—something had to change. Smith’s ability to get after the quarterback is undoubtedly his best trait and ultimately why the Lions made the move to acquire him.

Through nine games this season, Smith boasts an incredibly efficient 19.1% pass rush win rate, good for 12th among 126 qualifying edge rushers according to PFF. He ranks just behind Nick Bosa, but ahead of other premier pass rushers like T.J. Watt, Brian Burns, and Maxx Crosby. Smith’s total pressures (27) this season tie him with McNeill for second on the team behind only Aidan Hutchinson, so it’s safe to say Detroit has a clearer path to pressuring quarterbacks with Smith in the fold.

2.5% sack rate

Applying pressure to the quarterback is obviously important for a variety of reasons, but when that pressure gets home for a sack, only good things come from that. Offenses get off-schedule, behind the sticks, and are forced to play outside of their comfort zone when a sack happens.

Smith has 5.0 sacks so far this season, nearly matching his total from 2023 (5.5) through just nine games. Sacks are a statistic that include a wide number of variables to consider like downfield coverage, resources dedicated to pass protection, among others. How many total sacks isn’t nearly as illustrative as a player’s disruptiveness as his sack rate, a measure of how many sacks the player has weighed against his total number of pass rush snaps.

While the league average sack rate for edge defenders over the past three years has been 1.7%, Smith finds himself at a 2.5% sack rate and ahead of players like Maxx Crosby (2.4%), Montez Sweat (2.1%), and Danielle Hunter (2.1%). Again, it’s Smith’s efficiency here that demonstrates an ability to make impactful plays for a defense that needs to continue to do so since their defense isn’t at full strength.