{"id":445253,"date":"2026-02-02T20:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T20:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/445253\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T20:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T20:35:07","slug":"2-detroit-lions-dl-will-remain-under-contract-in-2026-due-to-little-known-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/445253\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Detroit Lions DL will remain under contract in 2026 due to little-known rule"},"content":{"rendered":"

Detroit Lions defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike signed a one-year deal last offseason, meaning the traditional expectation is that he\u2019ll face free agency in 2026 when the new league year starts in March.<\/p>\n

However, that\u2019s not actually how things will unfold with Onwuzurike this offseason.<\/p>\n

Due to a lesser-known rule in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, Onwuzurike\u2019s one-year contract will toll over to 2026, meaning he\u2019s under contract in Detroit and will remain so when the new league year hits.<\/p>\n

Because there is a stipulation in the CBA that a player who is on the final year of his contract, and spends the entire season on the PUP\/reserve list, will see their contract toll over to the next year. In essence, Onwuzurike\u2019s contract was paused in 2025 and will now carry over to the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

Here is the provision, in Article 20, Section 2 of the CBA:<\/p>\n

Section 2. Physically Unable to Perform<\/a><\/p>\n

Any player placed on a Physically Unable to Perform list (\u201cPUP\u201d) will be paid his full Paragraph 5 Salary while on such list. His contract will not be tolled for the period he is on PUP, except in the last year of his contract, when the player\u2019s contract will be tolled if (i) he is still physically unable to perform his football services as of the sixth regular season game; and (ii) he is not reinstated to the Club\u2019s Active\/Inactive List during that regular season or postseason. For the avoidance of doubt, if the player returns to practice, but is never reinstated to the Club\u2019s Active\/Inactive List during that regular season or postseason, his contract will toll.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: Lions defensive end Josh Paschal also remains under contract due to a very similar rule, this time regarding the Non-Football Injury list (Article 20, Section 3, Part B):<\/p>\n

A player on N-F\/I who is in the final year of his contract (including an option year) will have his contract tolled. However, if the player is physically able to perform his football services on or before the sixth regular season game, the Club must pay the player his negotiated Paragraph 5 Salary (pro rata) for the balance of the season in order to toll such player\u2019s contract. If such player is taken off N-F\/I during the period when such action is allowed by League rules, his contract will not be tolled.<\/p>\n

So, as it appears over on Over The Cap<\/a>, Onwuzurike is essentially under contract for the 2026 season on a one-year deal, $1.5 million contract\u2014just above the league minimum\u2014with an opportunity to gain more money on per-game roster bonuses.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one more opportunity for Onwuzurike, who has seen his career largely derailed by injury. After missing the entire 2022 season and much of 2023 with a back injury, Onwuzurike appeared to put it all behind him for a promising 2024 season. But the ACL injury threw another wrench into his young career. Since being drafted in the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft, Onwuzurike has played in 41 games (10 starts) and accumulated 68 tackles, 3.5 sacks, 16 QB hits, and a forced fumble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Detroit Lions defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike signed a one-year deal last offseason, meaning the traditional expectation is that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[189513,4992,349,99],"class_list":["post-445253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-detroit-lions-contracts-and-salary-cap","tag-detroit-lions-news","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}