Allen Park — One day after he was released by the Detroit Lions, the team re-added Levi Onwuzurike to the practice squad, effectively confirming speculation the team didn’t want to guarantee the veteran defensive lineman’s salary for the 2026 season.
The NFL has all kinds of complex salary rules that apply to vested veterans, players with four or more accrued years of service time, which are awarded after spending six or more games on either the active roster or and injured list during a single season.
One quirk is that a vested veteran’s salary becomes fully guaranteed if they’re on the roster for Week 1. By cutting Onwuzurike and setting the table to re-sign him to the active roster as early as next Monday, the Lions can now go week to week with his pay, providing flexibility if he underperforms coming back from last year’s ACL surgery.
The former second-round pick battled through a back injury his first two seasons, requiring a spinal fusion procedure in 2022. After a quiet re-acclimation in 2023, Onwuzurike broke out in 2024, including 45 quarterback pressures. That earned him a one-year extension from the club, but his 2025 campaign ended during the spring, when lingering knee pain proved to be an ACL injury that required surgical repair.
Missing the entire season caused that one-year contract to toll to 2026. Onwuzurike didn’t miss time during camp, but he mostly worked with the second- and third-team defensive units, and was quiet in three preseason performances.
That showing put him on the roster bubble, but he still made the team’s initial regular-season roster before he was cut on Friday. As noted, he could be re-added to the 53-man roster as early as next week.
In terms of Sunday’s game-day options, the Lions temporarily are elevating veteran defensive tackle Ben Stille off the practice squad. The mid-camp addition impressed coaches during his truncated offseason, particularly with his versatility.
“He's a pro, smart, really smart,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said last month. “He's got versatility, strong, very strong. He can shed blocks — shock, shed, make plays — and kind of knows himself, knows what he is, knows his own limitations and can play fast enough to cover up for some of those.
“But that's what's the intrigue with him is the versatility, man,” Campbell said. “He can play some big end, we think. He can play the nose, certainly, and then three (technique) if you need it. So the more you can do and the more that you can prove you can do, that is always going to help your case.”
Some of us take Brad’s (and his staff’s) thorough understanding of the salary cap’s rules (and holes) as a means of cobbling together a perennial member of the NFL elite franchises for granted. Others of us can’t figure out why Brad doesn’t throw $30m and a player to be named later at Maxx Crosby.
Levi is important for run defense. Is Chris Smith playing tomorrow?