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It’s been difficult to spot Lions second-round rookie Levi Onwuzurike throughout training camp. The big DE from Washington has barely participated due to injury reasons.
On Wednesday, Detroit head coach Dan Campbell offered up an in-depth explanation of what’s going on with Onwuzurike. And it’s not a great development for the 41st overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft.
“He had a couple of things with him when he was at Washington that we wanted to make sure he’s good with,” Campbell said prior to Wednesday’s practice session. “He’s kind of had a tight back and some things, so we wanted to get some clarity on where that was at. We’ve sent him around to a couple of specialists just making sure and everything seems to be good. We just chose to let’s really think about rehab, strengthening, things of that nature this week and then let’s get him fired up next week. You’ll see him next week, (that) is the plan.”
Despite the ongoing back injury, a dicey issue for any person of Onwuzurike’s considerable size, Campbell remains upbeat about seeing the prized draftee in the immediate future.
“I mean, look, you’re always going to have some type of concern,” Campbell said. “Obviously he’s young, he’s hungry, he works and I think we’ve got good people around him to help him. I think that we know what we’re looking at now because we’ve sent him to a couple places and I think he’ll be just fine. I can’t worry about it and I think he’ll be OK. That’s what we wanted clarity on is we think this will be fine. We’re ready to put him back into practice next week and let him grow.”
Onwuzurike had a similar situation at the Senior Bowl in January. He thrived in practices early in the week but was sidelined for the final session and the game itself with an undisclosed injury. He did not play in 2020 for the Huskies after opting out.
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