Tyson Alualu: A Bargain Piece of Lions’ Playoff Push

Tyson Alualu’s salary averaged more than $4.3 million per year over his first five NFL seasons. The former Cal defensive lineman is earning less than a 10^th of that this season with the Detroit Lions.

But there is one other significant difference. Alualu is on a team that won a playoff game this season and is one win from playing in the NFC championship game. That’s new for Alualu, who had played in three previous postseason games – one with Jacksonville (2017 season) and two with Pittsburgh (2020 and 2021 seasons) – and lost all three.

Alualu has played in just three games for the Lions this season, being elevated from the practice squad to the active roster before each of the past three games, and presumably he will be elevated to the active roster for Sunday’s second-round playoff game against Tampa Bay. He has started one game and saw significant playing time in the other two, including last week’s 24-23 victory over the Rams, which was Detroit’s first postseason win since the 1991 season.

Alualu is not getting as much attention as former Cal star and current Lions quarterback Jared Goff, who is earning about 100 times as much money as Alualu this season. But Alualu’s story is as intriguing as Goff’s.

It started with a surprise at the 2010 NFL draft. After recording 16 sacks and 26 tackles for loss at Cal from 2006 through 2009, Alualu figured to be an early second-round pick in the NFL draft the following spring. But he was taken with the 10^th overall selection by Jacksonville, earning him a five-year, $21,899,000 contract to begin his pro career. He played defensive end and defensive tackle in seven seasons with the Jaguars, but found a home as a nose tackle with the Steelers.

A serious ankle injury that required surgery limited his 2021 season to two games, and he was relegated to backup status the following season as he struggled to regain the form he had displayed in 2020. He became a free agent after the 2022 season, and it was assumed he would retire. Afterall, he turned 36 years old in May 2023 and did not seem to be the same player he was before the injury. He said he wanted to keep playing, but the Steelers did not re-sign him. No other team in the NFL signed him either through the first three months of the 2023 regular season. It seemed Alualu’s hopes of continuing his pro career had been dashed.

Things changed on December 5, which is when the Lions, beset by injuries on the interior of their defensive line, signed Alualu to its practice squad on a one-year, $370,800 deal – chicken feed for a player who had earned about $40 million over his previous 13 NFL seasons.

Plus he was just on the practice squad.

Prior to the second-last game of the regular season, the Lions elevated Alualu to the active roster for the December 30 game against the Cowboys. That game is remembered for the controversial ending (Did offensive tackle Eric Decker properly report in as an eligible receiver or not?), but lost in that commotion was the fact that Alualu was in the Lions starting lineup in that game, which was his Lions debut. He had two tackles in that game and two more the following week against Minnesota, playing about half the snaps in each game.

In the Lions’ first playoff game since the 2016 season last week in Detroit, Alualu played 22 snaps on defense and made one tackle to help Detroit capture its first postseason victory in 32 years.

There is some discrepancies regarding how much Alualu is earning this season as a practice-squad and active-squad member, with estimates ranging from $103,000 to $289,800 for his salary this season. In any case, it’s virtually nothing compared to what the 36-year-old Alualu had made during his pro career. It’s also clear the Lions are getting more than their money’s worth.

But even this paltry amount is probably more than Alualu might have predicted before he arrived at Cal. Alualu was scheduled to play for Cal in 2005, but his girlfriend discovered she was pregnant before she graduated from high school that year. In the summer of 2005, Alualu made a deal with Jeff Tedford, then Cal’s football coach. Tedford would let Alualu go home for one semester to get married and be present for the birth of his son. For his part, Alualu vowed that he would not transfer and would start his Cal football career in 2006 while living with his wife, Desire, and their son in married student housing.

Gene Frenette told the story in a 2016 Florida Times-Union story:

"I get emotional thinking about it all the time because if it were any other guy but Tyson, I would have been nervous," said a teary-eyed Desire, according to the Times-Union story. "The only thing I was nervous about was being so young and having to be a parent, but I never doubted my relationship with Tyson. We were meant to be together."

Desire and Tyson are still together and have six children.

And Alualu on Sunday will try to move one step closer to a Super Bowl berth, making a couple of bucks along the way.

From Alualu’s Instagram account: