Derrick Moore has a great opportunity to answer a lot of questions for the Detroit Lions this season.
With very little depth at the edge position, Moore could pop off the page immediately as a great long-term partner to Aidan Hutchinson along the Lions' defensive line. Taking any pressure off of Hutchinson is a great place to start, but of course, Moore has to actually make opposing teams' offensive linemen respect him enough to throw doubles and chips his way.
Packers writer Sayre Bedinger agrees, and he also thinks Moore is amid the best pass rushers in the division headed into 2026.
"The 44th overall pick in this year's draft, Moore has NFL-ready size off the edge at 6-foot-4, 255 pounds. He's also coming from a defense at Michigan that does a pretty good job of having guys ready to play when they get to the league, and after leading the team with 10 sacks and 10.5 tackles for loss last season, he's going to need to hit the ground running in Detroit."
Moore earns a place on Packers writers' edge rusher ranking
The Green Bay Packers know all about a huge need on the edge.
The team is going to be waiting on Micah Parsons until at least October, with the star defender recovering from a torn ACL suffered in 2025. In the meantime, the Packers have a rookie of their own in Dani Dennis-Sutton to trot out to begin the year at the edge, as well as Devonte Wyatt, Edgerrin Cooper, and Lukas Van Ness. They also have tackle Javon Hargrave who can generate some pocket pressure in the meantime.
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But, honing in on just the typical starting edge rushers for the Packers, Lions, and NFC North overall, it's clear that Parsons is likely the best of the bunch when fully healthy.
Moore landing so high on this list, in a division with some tough-nosed defenses, is a nice nod to his potential. It's excited to imagine the possibilities for this Lions defense if he can take off immediately, and that's certainly a possibility with how easy Detroit's schedule is for 2026.
In an ideal world, the Lions' defensive line can count on not just their edge rushers, but their interior defensive line, to generate far more quarterback pressures than they did in 2025. With a healthy Alim McNeill and Levi Onwuzurike, and year two from Tyleik Williams, Detroit could sneakily have one of the better defensive fronts in the NFC North if all goes according to plan. Big if, of course.
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