Film breakdown: Bring on the Levi Onwuzurike breakout season

Looking back at his 2023 Detroit Lions tape, there are plenty of reasons to believe Levi Onwuzurike is headed for a breakout season.

General manager Brad Holmes and the rest of the Detroit Lions front office have hit on high-value draft gems and franchise players every offseason. Lions fans have been spoiled by the unbelievable success of Holmes’ track record, which has produced foundational players on each of the three days of the NFL Draft .

Unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case for every selection. Defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike is almost an outlier for not being a homerun pick. He was this regime’s second-ever pick, following the newly-minted, highest-paid offensive tackle in the league—Penei Sewell.

Similar to Sewell, Lions fans and franchise personnel hoped Onwuzurike would not only hit like a Brinks truck but also get paid like one. In fact, Brad Holmes had to be talked out of trading up to grab him in the first round. Onwuzurike has also been overshadowed by Alim McNeill, a player at the same position, who was drafted only one round later and is well on his way to a wealthy second contract. Even fellow draft classmate, Amon-Ra St. Brown, selected a day later, just signed a life-changing contract extension. I am here to tell you, don’t count Onwuzurike out yet as a game-changing player like his draft classmates.

I believe now is when Levi Onwuzurike will be “getting to the diamonds .”

Needless to say, this is Onwuzurike’s make-or-break year, particularly the make-or-break training camp for his Lions career. There’s a real possibility, with the depth of the Lions roster, Onwuzurike could find himself kept off the 53-man roster.

Until this spring’s offseason program, he’d become a bit of an afterthought. But a funny thing happened during OTAs and mandatory minicamp. He started making everyone take notice. Media and coaching staff saw Onwuzurike stacking days. Reports from the spring offseason program touted how Onwuzurike had packed on a meaningful 15 pounds during the offseason, now that his back is healthy enough to build and carry that good weight.

“I just want to be careful because we’re not in pads, I just want to reiterate that, but Levi is having a really good spring,” coach Dan Campbell said of Onwuzurike’s impressive spring . “(Josh) Paschal is too, but Levi, because where he’s come from and all he’s had to deal with, I mean, this guy just has continued to rehab, he’s continued to train his body and work, he’s put on weight because his back can handle it now. We got him through last year to where he’s able to bank some reps and he’s having a really good spring,”

Additionally, in the spring, Onwuzurike expanded his defensive alignment repertoire by repping more on the defensive edge as well. While at the University of Washington, Onwuzurike spent only nine percent of his snaps over or outside of the offensive tackle (91 percent of his snaps lined up in either the A or the B gap) however, he’s spent 20.7 percent of his snaps on the outside with the Lions (majority of those snaps in 2021). Hopefully, this is a sign that the coaching staff trusts Onwuzurike more and wants to maximize his skill set.

For the first time in his four-year NFL career, Onwuzurike seems to have some legitimate momentum. In fact, if we go back to last season when Alim McNeill landed on injured reserve with a knee injury, we can see Onwuzurike starting to produce.

While on a limited 77 snap size, Onwuzurike made the most of his opportunities and was the NFL’s 17^th highest-graded interior defender from Week 15 through the Super Bowl (minimum 50 snaps). On top of that, his 82.4 pass rush grade ranked seventh, just behind guys like Chris Jones and Aaron Donald—pretty noteworthy company.

To get a more in-depth understanding of Onwuzurike’s glowing grades down the stretch—when he was potentially finally getting back to some semblance of fully healthy with his back—I watched his every snap from Week 15 through the playoffs and am here to provide you with a few of his best moments:

2023 Levi Onwuzurike pass rush plays

Onwuzurike, lined up in the 2i Technique on the inside shoulder of the right guard, takes on the initial double, after being the first player off of the ball which has been key for him. With guard Blake Brandel sliding to help right tackle David Quessenberry block Aidan Hutchinson, Onwuzurike is able to get his hands inside of center Garrett Bradbury, throw him off balance, and toss him with a well-executed pull-slide move.

Kudos to Josh Paschal on the initial pressure of quarterback Nick Mullens but Onwuzurike gets credit for his pursuit acceleration, especially his relentless motor and finish. Good defensive linemen are always attacking edges and have a non-stop motor.

Onwuzurike is able to blow guard Brandel back with his initial jolt, continues with the hand fighting, and pulls off an incredible bend on the dip for a 6-foot-3, 300-pound defensive tackle before laying the lumber on the quarterback. I still get night sweats from visions of Mullens pulling off improbable passes or completions to Justin Jefferson with a defender barreling down on him.

Onwuzurike attacks the outside shoulder of right guard Cody Mauch, gets an initial stab, and is able to rip and bend the arc circling to get to quarterback Baker Mayfield as he was releasing the ball. Onwuzurike was 1/10th of a second away from forcing a fumble.

Onwuzurike goes into his bag of pass rush tricks and pulls out the club rip to create the interior pressure. You have to think that some of these pressures, with the infusion of talent and development in the Lions’ secondary, will turn into more sacks, incompletions, or quarterback hits this year.

2023 Levi Onwuzurike run defense plays

Onwuzurike shoots his hands inside left guard Ben Powers, while keeping his shoulders square and maintaining a good base, and fights the outside zone double team to not lose ground. He is able to finish near the line of scrimmage by snatching up running back Jaleel McLaughlin in the hole.

On all three plays, Onwuzurike was hellbent on coming from the backside to make the tackle on the running back from behind. He displays excellent effort to strain down the line of scrimmage and not be cut off by the reach block by the offensive lineman. He turns it into a race to the hole. A lot of credit goes to Onwuzurike’s preparation and football IQ to be able to diagnose and react so quickly to each play.

For a player who was robbed of his 2020 (opted out) and 2022 (spinal fusion surgery) football seasons, it appears he will have back-to-back consecutive healthy seasons. It’s the first time in years that he can consistently work toward improvement.

Consistency will be key for Onwuzurike to put it all together, combining getting off the ball quickly, having good leverage, and gaining control of the offensive linemen with his hands. If he is able to do that, Onwuzurike has the potential to provide 20-30 meaningful snaps per game, along with impact plays, and could really elevate the entire defensive line.

The best version of the 2024 Lions includes a breakout season from Onwuzurike. What he’s overcome with his back injury is inspiring and has helped set himself up for that breakout season.

“You know that picture on the internet with the two guys chipping into a mountain trying to get the diamonds?” Onwuzurike said describing his journey back from injury . “I always knew I’d get to the diamonds, but there’s still days where you think like the guy who walks away and you’re kind of like, ‘I might not get there. My back isn’t feeling too good.’ The only thing is, I didn’t stop chipping. I let those doubtful thoughts just stay thoughts, and I moved forward.”

If you ask me, that’s a player to believe in, a player that’s earned that breakout, and a player who might just end up being a Brad Holmes draft diamond in the rough after all.