The 2022 NFL season for the Lions is one that will not be forgotten. The Lions entered the season with many doubts about their future, and many were unsure about the route the team would take to secure their future. Defensively, Lion fans were banking on the abundant amount of value they had received in the draft to not only give them hope for the season but also carry them through it. Very few fans of the Lions and the NFL expected Isiah Buggs to be one of the Lions’ breakout defensive players that the Lions would build up.
Isiah Buggs was a late pickup in the 2022 NFL offseason, signed in the hopes that he would be an available depth and rotational piece in their defensive line. Injuries on the defensive line during the 2022 season gave Buggs the opportunity to prove himself, and that’s exactly what he did. The signing of Isiah Buggs also gave the Lions the perfect opportunity to move Alim McNeil, a third-round pick during the 2021 NFL draft, to a new position that would optimize the efficiency of the run defense.
After the 2023 NFL season ended for the Lions, Buggs became one of the big names that the Lions had to make conversation with to obtain an extension and keep him in Detroit. The Lions recently made an agreement with Buggs that would keep him in Detroit for the next two seasons for $4.5 million dollars, with $2.1 million of that contract guaranteed. For a rotational player like Buggs, who was able to play all 17 games and consistently stay solid for the Lions, this is a reasonable contract. Buggs did not have a horrible statistical season either; he was able to get 46 total tackles and a singular sack during the season.
On top of all this, Buggs is also a tremendous leader for the Lions. With the large amount of potential the Lions have sitting on the defensive side of the ball with 2022 second overall pick Aiden Hutchinson and breakout sixth-round pick Malcolm Rodriguez, Buggs led a lot of the team through the entire season. He also led many team meetings that consisted of many players and started to do these almost every week.
