A look at what Cardinals fans and writers are saying about the Detroit Lions adding Roy Lopez in free agency.
Late on Tuesday night, it was revealed the Detroit Lions are adding nose tackle Roy Lopez on a one-year, $4.75 million contract. It’s just the Lions’ second dip into free agency, after landing former Jets cornerback D.J. Reed on Monday. Lopez has spent four years in the NFL—two with the Houston Texans, two with the Arizona Cardinals.
Let’s get to know him a little better by looking at how the Cardinals landscape reacted to his late-night deal with Detroit.
Cardinals, national media reacts to Lopez signing with Lions
If there’s one common reaction I saw among just about everyone, it’s that Lopez absolutely fits the “Dan Campbell” football character test. Several media members described Lopez as a relentless, gritty player.
A perfect Dan Campbell type of personality, physical and tough as nails!
— Mike Jurecki (@mikejurecki) March 12, 2025
Roy Lopez was a badass last year. Hard to see how this team’s DL is better by not giving him less than $5 million for one year. https://t.co/239EGuGapf
— Jody Oehler (@radiojody) March 12, 2025
Lopez also got a huge compliment from his head coach Jonathan Gannon last year:
“He’s a phenomenal human being.”#AZCardinals HC Jonathan Gannon re: fourth-year defensive lineman and former Gilbert Mesquite High standout Roy Lopez, who “enjoys coming to work and he gets better at his game.”
Gannon added, “I’d love a bunch of Roys.”
-@CraigAZSports pic.twitter.com/6vpSpYxtLh
— Arizona Cardinals Insiders (@AZCardsInsiders) August 12, 2024
Nate Tice is clearly a fan of Lopez’s game, and has been posting highlights of his throughout the past year:
just sharing some Roy Lopez for everyone to enjoy pic.twitter.com/X46Bb65Azy
— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) October 13, 2024
Roy Lopez getting the big mitt up! https://t.co/I2s6HySut1 pic.twitter.com/GEC38loeVG
— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) October 8, 2024
a mismatch against the back-ups pic.twitter.com/4evxtfcGcw
— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) August 12, 2024
love Lopez. Would be a sneaky good pick-up for a team if he doesn’t go back to Arizona. https://t.co/iBbaHsDb4x
— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) February 19, 2025
And in case you were wondering about how this may impact Detroit’s compensatory picks for 2026, this sets the Lions back to even:
Signing Roy Lopez to $4.65M APY would cancel out the 7th round 2026 compensatory pick the Lions had on the board for Ifeatu Melifonwu going to Miami. https://t.co/VDu4gpo4F8
— Nick Korte (@nickkorte) March 12, 2025
Cardinals fans
Again, there was a pretty common tune to Cardinals fans’ reactions to the move: he was the best player on a pretty bad defensive front last year. Despite Arizona going out and signing Josh Sweat this week, most Cardinals fans that I saw were not happy to see Lopez go.
Would like to see Roy Lopez back. He is a good rotational guy & 100% passes the “Cardinal attitude test” that the front office looks for.
— Nettles11 (@Nettles111) March 11, 2025
Great get Detroit we will miss him in AZ till we play you.
— stan93 (@stan93) March 12, 2025
wtf I thought he was under contract with us still smh
— z (@opher_t90631) March 12, 2025
We should have given him that, he was solid last year
— Mr. Ryan S. (@BirdgangRyan) March 12, 2025
He was a good contributor and locker room guy
— Kyler Murray Enthusiast (@kyler_is) March 12, 2025
You guys are going to like him for sure. Plays really hard, good rotation guy
— Jorden (@Jorden_____) March 12, 2025
He is pretty solid, and an awesome lockeroom guy was a hometown kid. He is going to work his ass off Campbell will love him
— Bryan A (@YoungFocusBA) March 12, 2025
Isn’t that great, but plays his butt off and is a great locker room guy. Every team needs those.
— Bill Fathauer (@BillFathauer) March 12, 2025
The Cardinals D line plan: pic.twitter.com/s7OYOZLTYq
— Mandatory (@AZTXMandatory) March 12, 2025
And just for fun, here’s Roy Lopez mic’d up from last season’s game against the Green Bay Packers. What’s notable is how positive Lopez seems to be, despite the fact that Arizona lost this game 34-13—and was down 24-0 in the first half:
