Levi Onwuzurike is staying in the Motor City, and boy, is he glad. The 2021 second-round pick never truly wanted to test the free-agent waters, and instead desired to continue his NFL journey with the Lions.
“Free agency, that just sucks,” Onwuzurike told reporters Thursday. “You’re sitting there, and waiting and waiting and waiting. Yeah, I think once it came down to it and I decided I want to be here, then it starts flushing in. Alright Derrick’s going to be here, Hutch is here, Alim is here, all these guys you grew up with and played with are here. Now, you don’t have to move, where if you move, you’re moving five miles down the road, you get a house or what not. And then you know the defense, you know all the coaches, you’re familiar, it’s going to be the same guys. So, all of that stuff starts flooding into your head. It just makes it so much smoother because you’re familiar.”
Onwuzurike experienced a career-best campaign in 2024. He started in a career-high 10 games, and amassed 29 hurries, 13 quarterback hits and 45 total pressures. He also earned a career-high Pro Football Focus overall grade (69.4). Yet, he only recorded 1.5 sacks. The University of Washington product would like to convert more of those pressures into sacks in 2025.
“It’s really about making the play once you get there, at the end of the day,” Onwuzrike said when asked for the key to turning his pressures into sacks. “For some guys, it’s a little bit of luck. But, you really just gotta make the play, have the right guys around you. If you put Hutch (Aidan Hutchinson) to my left, Mac (Alim McNeill) to my right, DJ (Reader) with us, (Marcus) Davenport, one of us is going to get a sack. It’s bound to happen.”
And if the group of aforementioned defensive linemen manage to stay healthy for the majority of the ‘25 campaign, it would aid the defense in a big-time way. That was hardly the case last season, however.
In 2024, Davenport suited up for just two games due to a torn triceps injury. Meanwhile, Hutchinson, the organization’s top pass-rusher, played in only five contests after suffering a fractured tibia and fibula in Week 6 against the Dallas Cowboys.
And that was just the beginning of the Lions’ issues with the injury bug. Dan Campbell’s squad lost several other players on the defensive side of the ball to physical ailments, including linebacker Alex Anzalone and now ex-Lions cornerback Carlton Davis. Plus, it ended the season with a double-digit number (and league-high amount) of players on injured reserve.
“What happened last year was crazy. We can all admit that. It’s not going to happen again. That’s one of those rare things that happened,” Onwuzurike expressed regarding Detroit’s rash of injuries in 2024. “I mean, you saw how we were rolling at the beginning of the year. To have all those guys back, everybody side by side (on the defensive line), we’re going to cause some damage for sure.”
