Confident he belongs, undrafted rookie Ian Kennelly knocking on door of making Lions' roster

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Allen Park — There were 18 safeties selected in the 2025 NFL draft. Ian Kennelly wasn’t among them. And while we’re not privy to the thinking of the league’s 32 general managers, there’s a strong likelihood none strongly considered taking him.

To add perspective to Kennelly’s prospect stock, Dane Brugler’s popular draft guide, “The Beast,” ranked the former Grand Valley State standout the 59th best at his position.

There’s this motto in the league’s scouting circles that if you have NFL-caliber talent, they’ll find you. However, Kennelly was largely overlooked, just like he was as a high school recruit.

Yes, caliber of competition matters, but we’re talking about a two-time first-team All-Conference performer, a perennial playoff program’s Player of the Year in 2024, possessing physical traits that just as well have been designed in a lab.

What NFL team wouldn't want a 6-foot-2, 210-pound safety with elite speed — Kennelly ran a 4.52-second 40-yard dash ahead of the draft — change-of-direction quickness and leaping ability for his position?

Beats me. Two shoulder injuries that were recently reported by the Detroit Free Press, including a more recent one that threatened to derail his NFL dream before it began, were likely a factor.

Regardless, Kennelly, a Utica Eisenhower grad, walked into the Lions' local pro day in early April and quickly grabbed the attention of several members of the organization, including assistant general manager Ray Agnew, special teams coordinator Dave Fipp and defensive assistant Jim O’Neil, who works with the team’s safeties.

"I didn't know anything about the kid. At all,” O’Neil said earlier this offseason. “He came to local day, and he crushed it. Not just the DB coaches observed it, (but) Fipp ended up gravitating over, Dan (Campbell) ended up gravitating over. It's like, 'Who is this kid?'

“And then we went back and we watched some of the tape, and some of the stuff we saw at the local day was showing up,” O’Neil continued. “Physical, could run, could obviously track the ball.”

Once the draft ended, the Lions happily snatched Kennelly up as an undrafted free agent. The way the organization approaches young talent is they’re typically granted a full offseason to figure it out. Everyone understood there would be an acclimation period, but worst-case, it doesn’t click, and they move on with nothing gained and nothing lost.

However, a few months into this thing, it appears the Lions have stumbled into something with the Metro Detroit native. After dealing with a minor hamstring strain early in training camp, Kennelly has started the team’s last two preseason games and played a heavy workload on both defense and special teams.

And with the depth chart depleted by injury the past week, Kennelly has gotten the call to log some first-team reps, ahead of a couple returning talents in Loren Strickland and Erick Hallett.

Reading between the lines, Kennelly appears to be tracking toward one of Detroit’s final roster spots when they trim to 53 players in less than a week. At the bare minimum, he's a lock for the practice squad.

Kennelly has been a popular target for media interviews this camp. Everyone loves the story of the local kid growing up to play for the hometown team. The Lions roster a bunch of guys who fit the mold, including Aidan Hutchinson and rookie receiver Isaac TeSlaa.

Kennelly has taken the added attention in stride. He considers the fact that anyone is taking an interest in his story a blessing. The other blessing with being local is that his family and friends have had a front row seat to share in his experience, with supporters in the crowd every day camp has been open to the public, at least until the weather closed those doors on Tuesday.

“It's kind of awesome,” Kennelly said. ”Their support means so much to me, and, honestly, I do it for them.”

As for the massive jump in competition, Kennelly never got hung up on his need to acclimate. Instead, he prefers to remind himself he deserves to be here.

“I'm never going to feel like I don't belong in a group, especially out here,” he said. “This is what I've been doing since I was eight years old, so I know I can play.”

That doesn’t mean there haven’t been adjustments. In particular, the length and physicality of Detroit’s practices have pushed him in ways he’s never experienced playing football. Plus, there’s always something new to learn. Right as he feels he has a grasp on some part of the scheme, or a fundamental technique the coaches want him to play with, the target moves.

As a rookie, Kennelly said he’s spending a lot more time listening than talking, absorbing every morsel of knowledge he can from the team’s veterans, a group that’s led by the stellar starting tandem of Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch.

“I’ve got to keep improving and honing in on the details,” Kennelly said. “It's a fast-moving game, you know, a lot of motions. The safety is the one that's got to adjust, a lot of the time. When I'm a half-step behind, because I'm thinking too much out there and processing what's going on, those are just the things I need to clean up. It's going to come with time in reps.

"…Yeah, I'm proud of where I'm at and how far I've come this far. But, you know, for me, I'm just taking a day at a time right now."

There's no question, Kennelly took the road less traveled to get to the NFL. And in the world with the transfer portal, where talented players with a hint they could reach the league with more exposure, he chose familiarity and loyalty. He saw teammates take the other side of the fork, deciding that uncertainty wasn't for him.

“That's just kind of the way my story went,” Kennelly said. “I'm happy about it. I had a great experience at Grand Valley. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

"Now, it's just that chip on my shoulder that I carry with me, because I do feel like I could have played at that next level. Obviously, I'm here now, so it all worked out the way it's supposed to."