Entering this season, Ahmed Hassanein's chances of making the Detroit Lions roster felt like a long shot.
After missing a full season with a pec injury, Hassanein came into training camp essentially as a rookie again. He'd need to earn his reps again, while putting himself back on the radar of defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard. In a season where the Lions are desperate to land some help next to Aidan Hutchinson, him starting out strong in camp was a huge must.
Hassanein has been battling with the first and second team defense throughout camp so far, becoming a staple of rookie Blake Miller's 1-on-1 reps and benefitting greatly from a positional switch early on in training camp, Sheppard has had him move from a rush end to a big end, and Hassanein is thriving with this new adjustment.
He's also making the Lions' future roster decision once preseason is wrapped a whole lot harder, with plenty of choices to be made about the future of their pass rush room.
Hassanein pieced together another great week of training camp
Team reporter Tim Twentyman shared some great notes on Hassanein's practice from Friday, noting that he looks a lot more comfortable as a big end in the Lions' defensive system:
"He's done a nice job being an early playmaker on defense, especially during the last four padded practices. That kind of consistency is what it takes for a young player like him to potentially make the initial 53-man roster...It's shown at practice. Hassanein has been a consistent winner in one-on-one drills against the offensive line and been in the backfield in team periods, earning him second-team reps in recent practices."
Detroit's edge rusher room outside of Aidan Hutchinson is looking unpredictable. DJ Wonnum, Derrick Moore, Tyler Lacy, Tyre West, Trevor Nowaske, Payton Turner, and Hassanein are all fighting to start next to Hutchinson, and likely bare the brunt of double teams and chip blocks to open things up for him to get to the pocket as often as he was in 2025, if not more.
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If we eliminate players like Turner, West, and Nowaske as likely cut candidates once the Lions' 53-man roster is decided, we'd still have the team carrying five pass rushers into the 2026 season. Detroit only carried four pass rushers at a time on their 2025 roster.
This feels like it'll be a two-man battle between Lacy and Hassanein for the final fourth slot, which is such a success for the Lions, as they likely never expected to have had such a battle for their depth slots at this position headed into camp. Going from Marcus Davenport and Tyrus Wheat to Hassanein and one of Wonnum or Moore would not be a bad deal for anyone involved.
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