Lions’ Season Takes a Hit: Defensive Star Levi Onwuzurike Faces Long Road After Devastating ACL Tear

Onwuzurike has spent his entire career with the Lions, who drafted him in the second round in 2021. Last year he was one of the few Lions defenders who stayed healthy, missing only one game and playing in 61 percent of the Lions’ defensive snaps.

“Levi is out for the year. Levi’s surgery, it was significant, but it needed to be done. Out of his control but it needed to be done, so he will miss the season,” Campbell said. “It was a knee, ACL, so he got that taken care of.”The Detroit Lions are facing another tough pill to swallow as their defensive woes from last season seem to be creeping into 2025. Today, head coach Dan Campbell dropped the hard news: defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike tore his ACL and is sidelined for the entire year. Though he started camp on the physically unable to perform list, the full gravity of his injury just came to light, hitting the Lions’ defensive front with a heavy blow. Onwuzurike, a second-round pick from 2021 and one of the few reliable pieces who stayed on the field last year, now faces a long road to recovery — a scenario no team wants to confront, especially one eager to rebound from a rocky 2024. It’s a tough break not just for Levi but for the entire Detroit defense, which already had too many holes to plug. LEARN MORE.Lions defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike suffered a torn ACL and will miss the entire season, head coach Dan Campbell announced today. Onwuzurike opened camp on the reserve/physically unable to perform list but it was only today that Campbell explained why.After a brutal 2024 season of injuries on defense, the Lions’ 2025 is off to a disappointing start.