Levy Planning Grievance Against Lions?

DeAndre Levy went from cornerstone Lions linebacker to unrestricted free agent in less than two years, with injuries largely paving his way out of Detroit.

But the linebacker appears to be at odds against his former team after undergoing a recent surgery, with an Instagram post that read, “‘Your knee is fine,’ they said,” (via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, on Twitter). This calls into question the Lions’ assessment of his injured knee and could lead to a grievance.

Levy underwent surgery a few days ago, Birkett reports. The outside linebacker underwent a previous procedure to clean up meniscus tears in his knee last season, causing him to miss 11 games in 2016. Levy characterized the latest operation as “a retouch up on the meniscus and some other damage,” per Birkett, who adds Levy is unhappy with how the Lions handled his injuries over the past two seasons.

“There was more going on than I was being told,” Levy said, via Birkett. “I can’t say what this means for free agency. My main focus is to actually heal and get healthy under trusted physicians.”

The Lions released Levy on March 9 and designated him as a post-June 1 cut. However, Levy had a $1.75MM injury guarantee in his contract. The Lions avoided paying that in the release by passing him on his physical, Birkett reports, assuming this will lead to a grievance against the team centering around that injury guarantee.

GM Bob Quinn said the team did not approach Levy about taking a paycut from the $5.75MM salary he was supposed to earn in 2017 because the Lions wanted to turn to younger linebackers. Levy turned 30 in March.

Detroit signed the outside linebacker to a four-year, $33.74MM extension in the summer of 2015 to make him the highest-paid 4-3 outside ‘backer at the time of the deal. However, he played just six games since after running into extensive injury trouble. Hip and knee problems sidetracked Levy, who had played 16 games in three of the previous four seasons. A grievance would mark the second straight complex offseason regarding the release of a linebacker for the Lions, who went through a lengthy ways-parting saga with Stephen Tulloch last year.