The Lions waived rookie edge rusher Ahmed Hassanein with an injury settlement this week.
Hassanein injured a pectoral muscle in an Aug. 16 preseason game against the Dolphins, prompting a question about Hassanein’s availability for this season. Lions General Manager Brad Holmes not only expects Hassanein to play but to play for the Lions this season.
“Bottom line: He’s going to be a Detroit Lion,” Holmes said, via Jeremy Reisman of prideofdetroit.com. “He’s going to be back on the football field playing this year.”
Hassanein cleared waivers, making him a free agent. Holmes, though, indicates the sides have a handshake deal for Hassanein to return to Detroit.
Hassanein cannot re-sign with the Lions until the length of the agreed upon injury settlement is completed plus an additional three weeks. The length of the agreed upon injury settlement is unknown.
“There’s a good chance that he might get healthy before then [the end of the injury settlement] within those weeks,” Holmes said.
The Lions could have placed Hassanein on injured reserve with a designation to return, but that would have burned one of their eight designations for the season. Instead, they counted on no one claiming an injured Hassanien, and they were right.
“What we wanted to do is what is going to be the best path for him to get him back to the practice field when he’s healthy, and the injury settlement was the way to go,” Holmes said. “Especially [with] him specifically, where he was at in his football career.”