Lions surprisingly release former second-round pick and seventh-round pick days before Week 1 opener, but there may be a sneaky reason for it
Detroit surprisingly moved on from its former second-round pick days before Week 1, but the timing creates a very plausible path for him to return almost immediately.
The Detroit Lions are back down to 52 players on their 53-man roster after releasing former second-round pick Levi Onwuzurike, a move that caught just about everyone off guard. This is a legitimate shocker. The Lions carried 11 defensive linemen heading into the week, and Onwuzurike figured to be the 10th man in that rotation. He had the possibility of making a major impact this year, which makes this decision all the more surprising.
It’s worth noting that Detroit also released rookie seventh-round pick Tyre West from the practice squad. So not only did the Lions cut a former second-round pick, they also let go of their 2025 seventh-round selection. That does open up a potential path back for Onwuzurike if the two sides want to reconnect on a practice squad deal, but at this point, a clean break feels just as likely. So this might be a two-fold situation.
The first fold
Looking back, this wasn’t completely out of nowhere if you were paying close attention. On my 53-man roster predictions throughout the offseason, I didn’t really have Onwuzurike on the roster until the final prediction. The Lions had been ramping him up slowly, and coach Dan Campbell talked about that process publicly. Campbell also acknowledged that Onwuzurike had a bit of a setback along the way. You could see the uncertainty building, even if nobody expected it to end like this in the first full week of the regular season.
I thought maybe this would happen after training camp, or sometime earlier in the process. Not now. But the Lions clearly reached a point where they decided to move on, and the timing suggests they’ve seen enough.
The second fold
This might be the Lions playing some tricks on the roster rules. By releasing Onwuzurike, the Lions get out of guaranteeing his contract. That’s not really something they would want to do with a player whose availability has been shaky since the Lions drafted him. Or a player who may not see the field as much as he has in the past.
The Lions can now bring him onto the practice squad as early as Saturday since he doesn’t have to clear waivers and then they can elevate him for Sunday’s game. It has all the looks of a workaround. The Lions may also just decide to keep him there on the practice squad and then see what happens from there. If I had to guess which fold it is, I’m leaning towards this one.
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