# Eric O’Neill, only rookie UDFA on Lions’ roster, just getting started
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Eric O’Neill’s parents came to every preseason game. This wasn’t unusual. They did the same through his three-stop college career at FCS Long Island, James Madison, and finally, in the 2025 season at Rutgers.
But at this level, their attendance had a different kind of urgency.
“They didn’t know when it could be my last game,” O’Neill, an edge defender, said at his locker on Tuesday, Sept. 8.
O’Neill, 23, was one of the nine undrafted rookies the team brought in as a free agent following the 2026 NFL Draft. He flashed in the preseason opener and began making big plays in practice, later making his presence felt in the final two exhibitions.
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But about 15 minutes after the roster cutdown deadline on Sunday, Aug. 30 — one of the most stressful days of his entire life — O’Neill’s phone lit up, a group call with the defensive line.
“They’re like, ‘If you didn’t get called (already), you made it,’” O’Neill said. “It took a couple days to really hit me, but it felt amazing.”
O’Neill turned out to be the only player from his UDFA class to make the team.
“You talk about a guy who was kind of on the outside looking in from the time he has got here in spring that had to defy all odds,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said.
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There were practices where O’Neill received “literally zero reps on the field. I went on the field pretty much to watch.” He found peace, focus and drive in the notion that the Lions “don’t owe me anything, so I can’t complain. … it’s a blessing to be here.”
“A lot of people, that bothers (them) and that messes with them,” O’Neill said. “But I’m just like, ‘Hey, if I get a rep or two tomorrow, I’m gonna it my best rep I can get.’ That slowly led to me just getting more reps to the point where I actually had chances to make some plays, and that’s all it takes.”
He gets this demeanor from his parents.
“You just gotta be different, you know? This generation of the world is a little messed up,” he said. “A lot of people are expected to be given stuff. They’re expecting to be entitled for things that they’re not entitled to. I just learned from my parents growing up, you’re not entitled to anything. You got to go in there and earn it.”
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O’Neill distinctly remembers the turning point of his camp. It came on his very first pass rush. He beat four-time Pro Bowler Orlando Brown Jr. off the line of scrimmage and hit Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow to force an inaccurate throw that fell incomplete.
It was a nice story at the time.
..But it also put a battery in his back that supercharged his performance. Four days after the preseason opener, the Lions held a scrimmage where O’Neill tipped a screen into the air, secured the interception and ran it into the end zone for a pick-six and later added a sack.
“I really went from, ‘I don’t think I’m going to make this team,’ to, ‘Wait, I could actually make this team,’” O’Neill said. “… Just two big plays that really changed my whole idea of making the 53-man (roster).”
From there, over the final two weeks, he became impossible to ignore.
“He had to make plays every day,” Campbell said. “He had to catch our eye every day, and he did that every day. Whether it was special teams or defense, he did something every day that there’s not a coach on any given day that’s not saying something good about O’Neill. ‘O’Neill today on this, O’Neill on this.’”
Added Campbell, “It’s awesome. It’s what we’re about.”
O’Neill understands the work is just beginning. Given the depth on Detroit’s defensive line — 11 players in total — his quickest path to the team will be on special teams, where Campbell is confident he can contribute. But the head coach also loves his future on defense.
“He’s a smart player, especially for a rookie, man,” Campbell said. “He’s got high football intellect and plays hard, plays the run, plays the pass, can get an edge.”
If O’Neill continues developing at his current pace, his parents might be able to relax a bit, knowing that their son’s last game of football probably won’t come any time soon.