Former Buccaneers and Lions defensive lineman Pat O’Connor is hanging up his cleats at the age of 32. O’Connor announced his retirement Thursday in an Instagram post.
“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.”
O’Connor played his college ball at Eastern Michigan, where he was a two-time first-team All-MAC performer. He stayed in the state when the Lions took him in the seventh round of the 2017 draft, though he was unable to crack their roster as a rookie.
After the Lions cut O’Connor from their practice squad in September 2017, he caught on with the Buccaneers a couple of weeks later. It was the beginning of a long Buccaneers tenure for O’Connor, who stayed with the organization through 2023. While mostly playing a special teams role with the Bucs, he appeared in 68 regular-season games, made 24 tackles and totaled 1.5 sacks. O’Connor was a core special teamer on the 2020 Tampa Bay club that won Super Bowl LV. He played 77% of ST snaps, the second-highest mark on the team behind defensive back Ryan Smith.
A few years after hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, O’Connor returned to the Lions as a free agent in 2024. While continuing to see plenty of special teams action then, O’Connor also played a career-high 236 defensive snaps. He tallied 18 tackles and a sack in 12 games.
The Lions brought O’Connor back last season, and though he made the first three starts of his career, he appeared in just eight games. Across 249 snaps (143 on special teams, 106 on defense), O’Connor added 10 tackles and his first career pass deflection. The Lions placed O’Connor on IR with an undisclosed injury and then released him with an injury settlement in mid-November. O’Connor rejoined Detroit’s practice squad in early December, but he did not see any more game action. He wrapped up his nine-year career with 52 tackles and 2.5 sacks in 88 games.
