Lions undrafted rookie has shown enough to get a bigger role and may become a staple of the Lions defense for years to come

The Detroit Lions are an open opportunity team and always have been. Late round guys have a chance to thrive here and undrafted guys to do. That's why when the Lions chose anyone to stick on their practice squad, you have to believe they did that because they see a future there. One guy has shown enough to defintley get his future started now. 

One of the biggest preseason standouts for the Lions this summer was undrafted rookie Isaac Ukwu out of Ole Miss. He came in and was at the very bottom of the roster the 90 man roster and then worked his tail off to move up. That caught Lions head coach Dan Campbell's eye right away. 

"I told the team this morning, you know, for a number of those guys that, man, there's still open spots here. And so if you want it, go get it. I mean, I just bring up a guy like Ukwu, man, you know, when he got here in the spring, he was last on the depth chart. It was, well, where can this guy play, he's not the biggest guy, but it's not really a SAM. Is he a defensive end? He's just steadily gotten better and better and better. And he plays much bigger than he is. He plays longer than his length says. So every time you give him an opportunity, he just shows up. So, you know, he's, there's, he's just an example of some guys we got our eyes on, you know. So there's, there's still some spots available here."

That's some big praise for sure. Ukwu doing that got him a chance to play more in the preseason games and that's where he really put his name out there for everyone to know it. In three games he had five pressures, three sacks and tow hurries. He looked great. 

Ukwu has continued to look good in practice and the Lions elevated him to play against the Cowboys on Sunday. He wound up playing 30 snaps and looked pretty good in all of them. He didn't get a sack, but he did record a pressure and a hurry. It looked like he didn't have much trouble getting around the Cowboys linemen. He also got two tackles, one of which was a solid run stop. 

With Aidan Hutchinson likely hitting injured reserve at some point this week, the Lions will have a spot open on the 53-man roster. It should be expected at this point that Ukwu gets that spot.