Detroit Lions injury updates: Levi Onwuzurike out for season, Josh Paschal till September
Lions coach Dan Campbell said defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike will miss the season after undergoing ACL surgery this offseason and defensive end Josh Paschal likely will miss the entire preseason after undergoing an unspecified clean-up surgery.
"Levi's surgery was — it was significant but it needed to be done," Campbell said. "Out of his control and it needed to be done, so he will miss the season."
Campbell said Paschal will return "probably early September. Labor Day maybe we can start working him into practice, that's the plan right now."
Onwuzurike was expected to play a major role this fall on the Lions' defensive front, especially early in the season with Alim McNeill still rehabbing from the torn ACL he suffered last season.
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Onwuzurike made a career-high 10 starts and appeared in 16 games last season after battling back injuries the first three years of his career. He re-signed on a one-year deal in March to stay with the Lions, who drafted him in the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft.
Paschal, a Lions second-round pick in 2022, was penciled in as the Lions' No. 3 defensive end behind Aidan Hutchinson and Marcus Davenport. He had two sacks in a career-high 14 games last season.
The Lions spent all of the 2024 season battling injuries on defense, and those losses helped derail a 15-win regular season with a divisional-round playoff loss to the Washington Commanders.
Defensive linemen Hutchinson, Davenport, McNeill, Mekhi Wingo and Kyle Peko finished last season on injured reserve. Hutchinson, coming off a broken leg, and Davenport, returning from a torn triceps, were cleared for training camp, Wingo and McNeill are on the physically unable to perform list and Peko is a free agent.
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Campbell said he's not concerned about the Lions' depth at defensive line, despite the early injury woes.
The Lions took defensive tackle Tyleik Williams in the first round of April's draft, No. 28 overall and, the rookie appears to be in line for an immediate starting spot. Roy Lopez, Pat O'Connor and Chris Smith add depth at defensive tackle, and rookie sixth-round pick Ahmed Hassanein and Al-Quadin Muhammad, who did not practice Sunday, are among the backup edge rushers.
The Lions still are looking for help at edge, where they cut Za'Darius Smith this offseason. Smith remains a free agent, and the Lions have shown interest in another veteran edge rusher, former West Bloomfield standout Matt Judon.
"The depth, feel pretty good," Campbell said. "There again, you don't like to lose anybody. I mean, certainly losing Levi that hurts, but it helps that we got Tyleik. So we got a little bit of balance here. And then you feel good about getting Paschal back here before the season.
"All in all I think we're pretty good. I like what we got in that room and really there again, man, we got an opportunity for a lot of guys. We know we'll get Mac back at some point during the season. We just got to get the best unit that we can come out of this and then we got to weather any storm until we get reinforcements, cause reinforcements are coming, at least we know that."
Campbell said left tackle Taylor Decker also will miss the start of camp as he recovers from offseason shoulder surgery. Decker is expected back sometime after the Lions' preseason opener July 31 against the Los Angeles Chargers in the Hall of Fame game, Campbell said.
Cornerback Ennis Rakestraw left Sunday's practice with trainers and is being evaluated for a chest injury, the team said.
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lions injury updates: Levi Onwuzurike out for season after ACL surgery
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