Detroit Lions defensive end Pat O’Connor announced his retirement from the NFL on Thursday.
OConnor, 32, appeared in eight games (three starts) for the Lions last season and made 10 tackles while playing 21% of defensive snaps (106) and 64% of special teams snaps (143).
Detroit selected O’Connor in the seventh round of the 2017 NFL Draft out of Eastern Michigan and released him from the practice squad in September 2017 before he signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
O’Connor totaled 88 regular-season games (three starts) and made 52 tackles with 2.5 sacks and seven tackles for loss for the Bucs (2017, 2019-24) and Lions (2024-25).
He played on the Buccaneers’ Super Bowl championship team in the 2020 season as well as in playoff games in 2022 and 2023.
“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 on Instagram. “But here we are.”
–Field Level Media
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