More than 20 minutes after the final practice of Detroit Lions training camp ended, Erick Hunter was still on the field.
An undrafted rookie from Morgan State who’s fighting for one of the last roster spots at linebacker, Hunter put himself through a version of the “four quarters” drill he used to do after practices in college.
He ran four sprints, four punt sprints, four change-of-direction sprints, then stopped to hit the sled before starting toward the locker room.
Out of breath, dripping sweat and with every one of his teammates already in the showers, Hunter stopped again by the Lions’ open-field tackling machine, hit the hanging tackling dummy on rollers four times, then slammed a Gatorade before heading inside.
“I’ve always kind of lived
by there’s either the pain of discipline or the pain of regret kind of thing,” Hunter said. “I’ve always had the discipline. This is what I’ve been doing my whole life. This isn’t new for me. This is always what I’ve done. This is what I did to get here, why switch it up now?”
The Lions close the preseason Saturday, Aug. 29, against the Indianapolis Colts, and for Hunter and the rest of the players on the roster bubble, it’s one final chance to state their case for a job.
NFL teams have until 6 p.m. Sunday to cut their rosters to 53 players, which means the Lions and the other three teams playing on Saturday – the Colts, Chicago Bears and Tennessee Titans – are working on tight turnarounds.
“It’s very quick,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “We land, next morning we get up and we've got things we have to do, and it's difficult. It's on you.”
Campbell and Lions general manager Brad Holmes met earlier this week to begin formalizing the roster, though Campbell said before practice Thursday “there's still spots available.”
On offense, the Lions’ biggest roster questions as they close the preseason are at quarterback and on the offensive line.
Cade Mays’ injury at center opened one backup spot on the offensive line, which Campbell said this week could be filled by someone not currently on the roster. And at quarterback, the Lions are picking between veteran Josh Dobbs and undrafted rookie Luke Altmyer to back up Jared Goff, while keeping an eye on who else might become available.
Altmyer has taken most of the No. 2 reps since Teddy Bridgewater’s surprise retirement at the start of camp, but Dobbs has the experience the Lions have long favored at the position. Dobbs, who signed with the Lions in early August, has completed 55% of his passes this preseason with two turnovers and one touchdown run. Atlmyer has completed 62.9% of his passes with three turnovers and one TD pass.
“You would like [to have a veteran backup] because those guys have played, there's real reps,” Campbell said. “They've been under real fire in real football games and that is important. But that's not the end all, be all, either. If you think there's somebody to work with here and that he's shown enough progress and he's only going to get better, then we don't close our eyes to that, either.”
On defense, the Lions have similar decisions to make at all three levels.
They have more bodies than they can keep on the defensive line, including several recent draft picks pushing for jobs. They could be in the market for more help in the secondary, where they lack bona fide playmakers and injuries have ravaged their safety corps.
And at linebacker, Hunter is out to prove his upside is worth a roster spot over the more veteran presence of Joe Bachie, Troy Reeder and Amen Ogbongbemiga.
Hunter told the Free Press earlier this month he “thought I knew every single coverage that you could run on defense” after specializing as a pass defender in college – until he got to the NFL and had installed every coverage he ran at Morgan State in “maybe the first two days of OTAs.”
“You don't know what you don't know,” he said. “What I know, I feel like I'm grasping onto. I'm not going to say I have a great grasp yet. It's right there, though. I can see it. Like, I can see the light of the tunnel, I just got to get there. That’s the best way to put it.”
By Sunday evening, Hunter should know if that light led him to a spot on the 53-man roster, practice squad or something else.
He called special teams, where he’s shined this summer and had two tackles in last week's preseason win over the Washington Commanders, his “golden ticket” to sticking in the NFL, and he said he’ll sleep well Saturday night knowing he did everything he can to make the roster as long as he plays with “relentless effort” in the game.
“I’m very anxious, but in a good way,” he said. “More eager than anxious. I know however it goes, I did everything plus more. I have no regrets.”
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Erick Hunter among Lions hunting for 'golden ticket' in preseason finale
