The Detroit Lions just filled one of their two major roster holes by selecting former Clemson offensive tackle Blake Miller with the No. 17 pick in Round 1 of the NFL draft, which has cleared the way for the franchise to make a major trade with the Minnesota Vikings for pass-rusher Jonathan Greenard.
Greenard is a darling of advanced metrics and was a Pro Bowler in 2024 who asked for a raise from the Vikings this offseason, two years into his $76 million contract. Instead he got permission to hunt a trade, after which it became quickly clear that a second-round pick was the most likely return range.
Detroit owns the No. 50 pick in Round 2, which Alec Lewis of The Athletic said is right around the type of compensation he expects Minnesota to land for Greenard, who has also garnered significant interest from the Philadelphia Eagles.
“If a team were to try to call and get a Jonathan Greenard deal done, at some point, I would expect the pick to come, like, around that 49 range,” Lewis said Tuesday, April 21. “That would be a range where it would start to make sense to me. Anything worse than … 60, you start to have a lot of questions about whether the Vikings would even listen to that as an idea.”
Jonathan Greenard Trade Would Solidify Lions’ Pass Rush
GettyPass-rusher Jonathan Greenard of the Minnesota Vikings.
Judd Zulgad of SKOR North said that while Vikings fans might want the team to hold out for a first-rounder, and that Greenard could actually be worth that type of return despite playing next season at 29 years old, the team is ready to move on from Greenard for a Day 2 selection.
“I think they take a second-round pick, because I don’t think they wanna pay him,” Zulgad said. “He does not make much right now, and I don’t know that the Vikings wanna make a major investment.”
Greenard has considerable value to a team like the Lions not just because of his statistics, both traditional and advanced, but because Detroit is in a position to try to win immediately given the talent across both sides of the football.
There is also the Lions’ success over the past three seasons to consider — all winning campaigns, two NFC North Division titles, two playoff appearances and one NFC Championship Game berth.
A second-round pick and a one-year extension, or the like, that allows Detroit to pay Greenard more money than he’s making currently while also lowering his salary cap hit in 2026 via said extension will address the team’s greatest need on defense.
Jonathan Greenard Huge Production Rate Per Snap Over Past 2 Seasons
GettyMinnesota Vikings pass-rusher Jonathan Greenard.
Greenard finished third in the NFL in 2024 with 80 quarterback pressures and first in the league with 49 hurries. He produced 18 tackles for loss and 12 sacks that season, his first in Minnesota, adding four forced fumbles and three passes defensed.
The edge-rusher missed five games with season-ending shoulder surgery to end the 2025 campaign, though he still finished the campaign with 47 pressures, 35 hurries, eight QB hits, four sacks and a forced fumble across only 270 pass-rush snaps, according to Pro Football Focus.
Greendard finished as PFF’s 31st-best edge defender out of 115 players who saw enough action to qualify at the position.
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