Levi Onwuzurike & Josh Paschal: Lions contract tolling and injury analysis

Reasons why the Lions may decide to just move on.

News recently dropped that Lions soon-to-be free agents Levi Onwuzurike and Josh Paschal surprisingly are still under contract for the 2026 season due to obscure tolling rules.

However, I think there is a good chance that neither of these former Lions 2nd-round picks even makes it to training camp due to their health concerns… as well as the curiosities and red flags surrounding their injuries.

NFL contract tolling: Why Onwuzurike and Paschal are still Lions

Since these players spent the entire final year of their contract on PUP or NFI, they will be under contract with the Lions for another season under their same final-year terms.

What are the health concerns for Onwuzurike and Paschal?

Levi Onwuzurike:

• During the offseason in 2025, Onwuzurike had ACL repair surgery which ended his season. He stayed on the PUP (physically unable to perform) list all year.

• In 2022, he had an L5-S1 spinal fusion. Credit to him as he might be only the 2nd NFL player in history to have come back from this kind of surgery. However, long-term reliability concerns remain.

• He will be 28 years old entering the 2026 season.

Josh Paschal:

• During the offseason in 2025, Paschal had back surgery and was placed on the NFI (non football injury) list. There have been no released details of the injury. The back issue prevented him from playing the entire season, although he did return to practice for about 3 weeks in November before being shut down.

• The back issue is not suspected to be related to his melanoma cancer from 2018 that he successfully beat.

• He will be 26 years old entering the 2026 season which is still young.

Both of these players have major health concerns that will impact whether the Lions decide to retain them. But it’s not just the health concerns that may lead the Lions to cut ties…

What are the signs there may be a rift between Onwuzurike/Paschal and the Lions?

Levi Onwuzurike:

In March 2025, the Lions signed Onwuzurike to a 1-year contract. In July 2025, Dan Campbell revealed that Onwuzurike had ACL surgery and his season was over.

This is something that crept up once the season’s done…. Then probably a month after he signed… knee’s bothering him. We keep working through it and it’s not getting any better. We just needed to get [surgery] done.

-Dan Campbell

Here is the link to Campbell’s full press conference.

Campbell’s comments imply that the ACL injury actually started during the 2024 season and that surgery was decided upon about a month or 2 after signing the contract. The comments also imply that there was no acute ACL rupture. All this adds up to a suspected partial ACL tear in 2024.

Looking back on the game videos, Onwuzurike wore a right knee brace for the entire 2024 season. You can see the knee brace here in Week 18:

It’s unknown which side his ACL tear was on. If this right knee brace was indeed for a partial ACL, then credit to him for playing parts or even all of the season with it.

The timing of the ACL surgery so soon after signing the 1-year contract likely raised some questions internally with the Lions.

• How much did the Lions know about the injury before giving him the 1-year deal?

• Did the Lions realize that an ACL repair was going to be a possibility?

• Did the injury become aggravated after signing the contract or did the management plan just change?

The Lions guaranteed $3.5 million of his $4 million 1-year deal. This high percentage of guarantee means that the Lions must not have suspected that an ACL repair was in any way a possibility.

If the Lions felt blindsided or kept in the dark in any way, that would likely eliminate any desire to bring Onwuzurike back.

Josh Paschal:

What raises eyebrows is that Paschal was placed on NFI (non football injury) as opposed to PUP (physically unable to perform). The placement on NFI allows the team to not pay the player’s salary - which could be detrimental to the relationship. It’s unknown if the Lions paid Paschal’s salary last season.

So why NFI? Any injury related to playing football or preparing the body for football (training, workouts, rehab) would be placed on PUP.

Placement on NFI would mean that a player’s injury was caused by something unrelated to football such as:

• volleyball (Joe Fauria?)

• conch shells (Sam Martin?)

• volcano surfing (DeAndre Levy?)

• a medical illness like mono (Christian Mahogany)

• a car accident (Nate Burleson)

Technically, getting injured while doing personal training away from the facility could merit NFI, but a team would not do that to a player who is working out in good faith. The player would have to be doing some kind of training that was unapproved or reckless for the team to consider NFI.

When you look at the various reasons a player might be placed on NFI, you can see examples that might cause a rift with the team.

At this time, we don’t know the reason why Paschal was placed on NFI.

What is the 2026 outlook for Onwuzurike and Paschal?

First, there are major questions whether these 2 players are physically capable of even playing football. Onwuzurike’s ACL should have a reliable recovery in about a year, but he also has a significant back history. Paschal was not able to recover from his back surgery after many months and might still not be recovered.

Even if the health concerns of both players can be resolved, it’s possible the Lions still don’t want them back.

With my understanding of the tolling contracts, the Lions basically get a financially free look at them this offseason to see where their health is at. Will the Lions take that free look or decide that they have already seen enough?

Due to the curious nature of how things played out last year, don’t be surprised if the Lions release both Onwuzurike and Paschal early this offseason.

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For the health concern level of other returning Lions, see my story below…