Pat O’Connor announced his retirement from the NFL on July 16, ending a nine-year career that began and concluded with the Detroit Lions.
The veteran defensive lineman shared his decision less than two weeks before Lions veterans are scheduled to report for training camp on July 28. Rookies report July 25, according to the NFL’s official league-wide camp schedule.
“What a ride it’s been,” O’Connor wrote on Instagram. “After 9 incredible years, I think it’s finally time to hang up the cleats.”
O’Connor accompanied the message with video of fans announcing his selection by Detroit during the 2017 NFL draft.
“If you had told my younger self that I’d play this long, spend my entire career with just two teams, get drafted, and win a Super Bowl, he would have called you crazy,” O’Connor wrote. “But here we are.”
He thanked his teammates, friends and coaches before looking toward his post-football life.
“As one chapter closes, another begins,” O’Connor wrote. “Now it’s time to enter the real world. I’m beyond excited and ready for whatever comes next.”
Pat O’Connor’s Career Came Full Circle With Lions
The Lions selected O’Connor out of Eastern Michigan with the 250th overall pick in the seventh round of the 2017 draft.
He did not immediately establish himself in Detroit, but he eventually found a long-term home with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. O’Connor spent seven seasons with Tampa Bay and was part of the Buccaneers team that won Super Bowl LV following the 2020 season.
He returned to the organization that drafted him in 2024, initially joining Detroit’s practice squad before being promoted during a season in which injuries repeatedly tested the Lions’ defensive depth. The move came shortly after Detroit lost Aidan Hutchinson to a significant leg injury.
O’Connor appeared in 12 games during the 2024 regular season. He played 236 defensive snaps and another 160 on special teams, giving Detroit an experienced reserve capable of contributing in more than one phase.
Detroit brought him back for 2025. O’Connor played eight games and made three starts in his final NFL season, finishing his career with 88 regular-season appearances.
His role was rarely glamorous, but lasting nine seasons as a seventh-round defensive lineman required exactly the versatility and persistence O’Connor showed. He moved between active rosters and practice squads, contributed on special teams and remained available when injuries forced teams deeper into their rotations.
Retirement Does Not Create a New Lions Roster Vacancy
Despite the timing of O’Connor’s announcement, his retirement does not appear to represent an unexpected loss from Detroit’s current camp roster.
O’Connor finished the 2025 season with the Lions but had not been established as part of the team’s 2026 defensive-line group. His decision therefore closes the possibility of another late-summer return rather than removing a projected contributor shortly before practices begin.
Detroit will still have significant defensive-line questions to resolve in camp, particularly when determining its reserve rotation and special-teams contributors. O’Connor’s previous ability to handle both jobs illustrates the type of versatility coaches value near the bottom of a 53-man roster.
His departure is more notable as the conclusion of a career than as a disruption to Detroit’s plans.
O’Connor’s NFL journey took him from a hometown draft moment with the Lions to a championship in Tampa Bay and, finally, back to Detroit. Nine years after Lions fans announced his name, he used that same footage to help announce the end.
“Thank you, football,” O’Connor wrote, “for everything.”
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