A deeper look at the Detroit Lions undrafted free agents and picking which ones can make the 53-man roster in 2026
The Lions have a fun group of undrafted free agents, and a few of these guys have real shots to make the 53-man roster in 2026
The Detroit Lions have completed the 2026 NFL Draft, and we think they had a pretty solid draft. But today, we want to dig into the guys that the Lions didn’t draft. The undrafted free agents. Here’s what we learned about all of these guys:
De’Shawn Rucker, CB, USF
Right off the bat, you notice a theme with Rucker and some of the other undrafted defensive backs the Lions have signed before. Rucker has versatility. He played both cornerback and safety for USF during his time there. While the sample size at safety is smaller than what he did at corner, he was a lot better there. He had USF’s highest coverage grade in those games. It makes you think this might be the plan for him.
Miles Kitselman, TE, Tennessee
Kitselman is someone who has felt like a fit for the Lions for a while now. He’s the kind of guy who might have a chance to push Brock Wright at the end of the day. Kitselman excels at run blocking, which is something the Lions just haven’t really been able to lock down at tight end as much as they probably want to. Tennessee did throw to him, but not a ton. Interestingly enough, they handed the ball off to him a few times, too. Maybe there’s a secret fullback here.
Luke Altmeyer, QB, Illinois
Altmeyer has a real shot at making this 53-man roster. Don’t look at him as the future of the team and their next starting quarterback. That’s not the vision here. Think of him more like Andy Dalton or Marcus Mariota now. Guys who can come off the bench and manage a game by short passing teams to death and minimizing mistakes. Altmeyer could potentially land the QB2 job at some point by doing things that way.
Eric O’Neill, Edge, Rutgers
You have to wonder about O’Neill. At James Madison in 2024, he looked very good. Like, elite good in terms of college football players. 59 pressures and 13 sacks with grades in the high 80s across the board. After transferring to Rutgers for the 2025 season, everything went down. He notched 41 pressures and four sacks, and the grades went to the mid-70s across the board. It should be noted that Rutgers had a notoriously bad defense. Like, historically bad. Stuff like that can make a player look worse than he really is.
Anthony Lucas, Edge, USC
Lucas is a guy I think has a shot to make the 53-man roster in 2026. He’s a solid run defender, which fits what the Lions really want to do on defense. He has pass-rush ability as well. He’s one of those guys where you can just see the vision with him, but he just hasn’t put it all together yet. Once he does, he has a chance to land a spot in the rotation. I think he does it in 2026.
Melvin Priestly, OT, Illinois
Four years as a starting tackle between two years at Illinois and two years at Grambling. He allowed just 14 pressures and two sacks in 2025. In the two years at Illinois, he allowed just four sacks. He’s played both right tackle and left tackle. He projects more as a guard in the NFL, though. Should be interesting to see where Detroit puts him.
Erick Hunter, LB, Morgan State
The guy everyone wants to know about since he got a fairly large UDFA contract from Detroit. Hunter played at the HBCU level and pretty much wrecked it there. He was a two-time MEAC Defensive Player of the Year. A lot of stuff has him listed as an edge, but he was primarily a Will linebacker or middle linebacker in college. In 2025, he had a huge year with 102 tackles, 14 tackles for loss, four sacks, a pass breakup, an interception, and a 90-yard blocked field goal return for a touchdown.
Aidan Keanaaina, DT, Cal
A really solid run stuffer at Cal in the two seasons he was there. He had 44 stops to his name there. There’s not a lot of pass-rush ability there, but he can eat some space and allow others to take advantage of that. He projects as a nose tackle option for the Lions. Since the Lions don’t really have that right now, he has a shot at the roster.
Aamaris Brown, CB, UNLV
A slot corner for the Rebels in his one season there. He actually transferred to UNLV from USF, where he was teammates with Rucker. So there’s a reunion happening here. He was a ball hawk in 2025 with four interceptions and six pass breakups. He allowed a pass rating of 64.0. Not bad at all.
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