When Roy Lopez is done playing in the NFL, he wants to be a football coach — like his father and uncles and pretty much “everybody I know.”
And one of the reasons the Detroit Lions’ newest nose tackle picked them in free agency was for the chance to learn the profession from Dan Campbell.
“I look to coach one day when I’m done playing,” Lopez said Thursday. “And to be able to learn from Dan Campbell, like that speaks for itself.”
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Lopez officially signed with the Lions on Thursday, two days after agreeing to a one-year, $4.65 million free-agent deal.
He is expected to play a rotational role at defensive tackle this fall, and said he’s joining a room “that I play a lot alike with.”
“These guys play hard, they play for four quarters until the end of the whistle, and that’s exactly who I am when people ask about me,” Lopez said. “Show up every day ready to work, excited to be here, it’s a blessing. No bad days, man. So I think that’s the biggest thing is I’m going to grind it out to the very end, when the clock hits zero and maybe one more second after that. So it’s a blessing to be a part of this room cause if you look on tape, that’s the way they play is you can’t fake it. It’s down at the core, so it’s a blessing to be here.”
The Lions return starting defensive tackles D.J. Reader and Alim McNeill, but McNeill is returning from a torn ACL and might not be ready for the start of the season. They also re-signed backups Levi Onwuzurike and Myles Adams in free agency, and return Brodric Martin and Chris Smith.
Lopez played primarily as a run stopper the past two seasons in Arizona after spending his first two years with the Houston Texans. He was a two-time state wrestling champ in high school, and credited his uncle Nick Gomez, a former defensive lineman at Illinois State, for pushing him to play defense because of his wrestling background.
Lopez went 113-3 as a prep wrestler in Arizona. He avenged all three of his losses, but said of the wrestlers who beat him, he still knows “exactly what school they went to and what they look like today.”
“Can tell you names, height, weight, Social Security number,” he joked. “I can tell you everything.”
In football, Lopez still is trying to learn everything, which is part of why he wanted to play for Campbell, who finished second in NFL Coach of the Year voting, and the Lions.
He said he was attracted to the team because “the whole league, the whole country knows what the Detroit Lions stand for,” and to Campbell because he “loves his players, he loves his city, he loves his organization.”
“I’ll tell you from up close, I didn’t know he was that big,” Lopez said. “I told (my parents), I made a joke, I was like, ‘I knew he played, I didn’t know he could still play.’ Amazing. Like, shook his hand, I was like, ‘Man, bro.’
“But yeah, it was awesome. You see it from afar. That’s what I mean by the whole country, the whole NFL knows about the Detroit Lions and that’s because of the city, that’s because of Coach Campbell. It’s because of the culture they built here. They believe in each other. They believe in what they’re building and on the outside looking in and as a competitor, as someone that loves ball, it’s intriguing. It’s a huge part of why I chose … Detroit.”
Briefly
The Lions re-signed linebackers Anthony Pittman and Trevor Nowaske on Thursday. Pittman was non-tendered as a restricted free agent, but agreed to a one-year contract before the start of free agency. The Lions tendered Nowaske as an exclusive rights free agent. Both players should vie for special teams roles in 2025.
