New Lions undrafted rookie Erick Hunter is ‘more athletic and a better player than Alex Anzalone was coming into the league’ – How the Lions might have pulled off a heist with this HBCU standout
The Lions might have found the perfect culture fit and a guy who can make an impact after the draft
After the 2026 NFL Draft, the Detroit Lions did the thing they always do. They headed to the open market and signed some undrafted free agents who weren’t drafted.
Some Lions fans saw the reported deals of one of these guys, and when they saw he was getting three years and $3 million, they assumed that the Lions were super high on him. The truth is that the deal is boilerplate. Basically, every UDFA gets something around that.
Still, this led to a lot of discussion about the player, which led to me needing to learn as much as I could about the guy. What I found was…
The Lions might have found something special in Erick Hunter
Hunter played at the HBCU Morgan State, and last year, he had a crazy good season 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.
Unfortunatley, that’s all we really know about the kid because finding film on HBCU players isn’t the easiest thing to do. So I reached out to the foremost authority on HBCU ball, Mr. Kyle T. Mosley, the founder of HBCU Legends, which is part of Sports Illustrated’s network.
Right off the bat, Mosely told me all of the things you know Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell love. Hunter was a team captain, a consummate leader on the field; he doesn’t go out and party, and oh yeah, this trait that we know the Lions love. He’s a self-proclaimed “film junkie.”
“He said, ‘I lived off campus, around 12 miles off campus, so instead of me going to my apartment, I stayed in the coach’s office after we had our practice,’ because their practices usually ended around 10:30 to 11 o’clock AM. And he said, ‘I just stayed on campus all day if I were not going to classes, I was in the coach’s office watching film.”
Pretty textbook example of what fits the Lions culture. A guy who loves ball and eats and sleeps it.
What about what you see on the field with Hunter? What position is he going to play? At Morgan State, he was a Will linebacker and a middle linebacker. For some reason, when the reports came out, he was listed as an edge. Where is he playing at? Mosley shed some light on that.
“When I spoke to Erick, he said the NFL teams looked at him as a Will or a Sam, and also a couple of the teams, because he interviewed with 31 out of the 32 teams, right? But he said a couple of the teams also asked if he could do Mike.”
When I see him, Will linebacker comes out mind first, but I also wonder if he has the potential to play that Sam role. He’s able to drop into coverage. He can set the edge in the run game, where Pro Football Focus gave him an 80 grade, and he can rush the passer. He got an 88.9 grade there.
That’s also a spot that is kind of open right now, depending on whether the Lions want to move Derrick Barnes to the Will or not. Worst case, Hunter can fight for a rotational spot in that area. You might remember that the Lions tried another HBCU player there not long ago in James Houston.
Speaking of Houston, Mosley compared Hunter to Houston, but gave Hunter the edge in terms of being the more complete athlete.
“If you look at what James Houston IV was able to do coming out of Jackson State, they have a similar type of style of play. I think James was a little bit more of a bender, a better bender than Erick, but I think Erick, all in all, is a better athlete when it comes to his measurables, the way he can lead, how fast he was at the position, and how he handled three cone drills as well.”
As you’ll note in the headline, Houston wasn’t the only former Lions player Mosley compared Hunter to. He also compared him to Alex Anzalone, but also put him ahead of where Anzalone was when he came into the league.
“I covered Alex Anzalone when I was covering the New Orleans Saints. He was one of those workman-type linebackers, right? And I think he performed better when he was with the Lions than when he was with New Orleans. But what I saw in Anzalon earlier, and what I see in Erick Hunter, Erick Hunter is more athletic and a better player than Alex Anzalone was coming into the league.”
That’s pretty high praise. As we know, Anzalone wound up starting for the Lions for five seasons and was a team captain. Hunter is not at that point yet. He needs to mature in his game and fight for a spot just like everyone else does.
Mosley said Hunter knows that he has an uphill battle. Maybe even more uphill than most, considering he comes from a small school, but he’s ready to earn his keep on special teams and do whatever he has to do to land a spot. We’ll see how he does in August. But right now, I say he has a real shot.
Detroit Lions News