DeAndre Levy started with the Detroit Lions at the very bottom, coming off the 0-16 season in 2008 with a new team president in Tom Lewand, a new general manager in Martin Mayhew and first-time head coach Jim Schwartz.

As Levy leaves the team after being released Thursday, he’s seen it evolve and improve, much like the city of Detroit itself. He just knows he won’t be around to see if the transformation is completed.

Levy said he wants to keep playing. He wants to return to his old form. But he leaves the Lions with no regrets.

“You know, the past couple of years turned it around and it’s been night and day, and they are not all the way there but we made progress,” Levy told ESPN after his release. “I don’t think that’s something that should be overlooked. It’s hard to go from 0-16 and to be what we were last year, 9-7. It feels different, man, and I think they made tremendous steps in the right direction in this organization to be a Super Bowl caliber team. That takes time.

Since signing his contract extension with the Lions during training camp in 2015, DeAndre Levy was healthy for only one quarter of one game. Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire

“That’s kind of one of the biggest things that I always thought is seeing the team my first year and seeing the team maybe my fourth or fifth year, starting to feel like a professional team, like a team that could do something. It’s been a lot of ups and downs, a lot of chaotic games, a lot of heartbreaking losses, a lot of gut-wrenching wins. It’s been fun. I don’t take any moment for granted.”

Levy knew he wouldn’t be coming back to Detroit with an $8.39 million cap number after two seasons of inaction due to injury. He doesn’t know if he would have accepted a pay cut, something he said the Lions never approached him about.

Yet he admits he thinks about the what-ifs of his time lost due to hip and knee injuries. Since signing his contract extension during training camp in 2015, he was healthy for one quarter of one game, the first quarter against Indianapolis.

“Those 26 to 28, 29, those are really the years and I really felt everything was coming together and kind of derailed with the injuries,” Levy said. “I had a lot of miles on my body. I know that I gave everything I had in preparing and taking care of my body and trying to get back healthy.

“Sometimes it’s out of your control. You play football and it’s a violent sport and it’s a taxing sport. Sometimes you can do everything in your will to be prepared, to be ready, to be available, and at the end of the day, you’re still playing a very physical, a very violent game and sometimes those things catch you. But I know that I don’t have any regrets because I know I didn’t sell myself short any day that I was a part of the Detroit Lions.”

His 2015 hip injury cost him all but one half of one game after he had 151 tackles in 2014 -- second in the NFL -- and was a Pro Bowl-caliber linebacker.

This season’s knee injury -- one that left him criticized heavily in Detroit -- came on a leg whip against the Colts. He thought it was a thigh bruise and played every snap the rest of that game. Then during the week after the Lions’ win, the swelling and bruising on his right thigh and IT band (a ligament that runs down from the hip to the shin) remained. A couple of weeks later, a scan revealed a torn meniscus and some other damage, resulting in a small procedure.

Levy thought he’d be out six weeks. but the injury lingered. Fluid built up when he jogged. It sidelined him for 11 weeks. Even when he came back, he wasn’t the same. Had the Lions been out of the playoff picture, he would have been placed on injured reserve. But the chance to play meaningful games kept him on the roster.

He started practicing in Week 11, but his conditioning was off. The knee struggled. He started off strong on Mondays, but by Fridays, he was “significantly worse.” So it took three weeks to get back in a game.

Even then, he compensated and played limited snaps. Was he close to healthy then?

“Hell, no,” Levy said Thursday. “I wasn’t even close.”

Levy said he felt good for a majority of the snaps, but there clearly were periods when the knee forced him to adjust. Even during a good stretch in Week 15 against the Giants, he came out because of a strict snap restriction.

“It was forcing myself to be patient and be a little bit more cerebral about my approach to training and preparing,” Levy said. “Kind of doing it a different way so I could end the season where I couldn’t maybe punch a lineman how I needed to. I needed to find different ways, different angles.

“It was kind of just one of the things I always embraced about football, just finding a strategy from week to week, day to day, recovering, get prepared and learn a new part.”

A lot of what Levy, who has never been a free agent, is about to experience is new after feeling at home in Detroit. While other players leave town, he spent his offseason in the city rehabbing and working on charity projects. Eight years, he said, made him connected to the city.

Detroit is where he discovered himself as a player and grew as a person eventually comfortable enough to question the NFL about CTE research and call out other athletes to help stop domestic violence and sexual assault.

It’s why, when asked about his legacy, he pointed to the work he did off the field, work he plans to continue. Another fundraiser for Enough SAID, the organization that tests and tries to help solve crimes of forgotten rape kits, is in the works for April. In October, Levy raised $30,000 for the organization with an "Our Issue" T-shirt campaign.

“The last couple years especially are really the things that I look back on and hope last longer than what I did on the field because that’s very fickle,” Levy said. “You have good games, bad games, good years, bad years.

“But the things I did off the field I hope will be lasting for the people I was able to try my best to help and bring light to.”

And that, no matter how things ended in Detroit on the field for Levy, is not a bad legacy at all.