ALLEN PARK, Mich. — The Alex Anzalone saga has reached new levels of weird.

And that's according to the man himself.

Anzalone, a four-time captain and starting linebacker for the Detroit Lions, showed up to practice on Tuesday for the first time since the end of last season and spoke about his desire to "retire a Lion." He's entering the final season of a three-year, $18 million deal — a contract that was signed before his play and the linebacker market as a whole exploded.

While he doesn't plan to sit out games in the absence of a new contract, he said he expressed a desire to stay in Detroit "long ago," is "disappointed" by the lack of engagement from the team's front office, and deferred all questions about what the hold-up might be by saying, "You gotta ask (Lions coach) Dan (Campbell) and (general manager) Brad (Holmes)."

Anzalone, 30, reported to camp on time but hasn't practiced due to a hamstring injury that he said flared up during his conditioning test. Just two days prior, Campbell said he "crushed the conditioning test."

Campbell was asked Sunday if Anzalone could potentially be holding in, which is similar to a holdout (in which a player doesn't show up to camp in hopes of landing a new contract) except the player often reports to camp, goes to all meetings, but just doesn't hit the practice field.

"No way, right? I refuse to believe that. I refuse to believe that," Campbell said about Anzalone potentially holding in.

Anzalone was one of two players to not report to Organized Team Activities (OTAs) during the spring, the other being since-retired center Frank Ragnow. His reason for skipping OTAs was not explicitly stated, but Anzalone said, "Yeah," when asked Tuesday if he thought he was underpaid.

He currently ranks 35th in average annual salary for linebackers around the league and is the second-highest-paid linebacker on his own team after Derrick Barnes signed a three-year, $25.5 million extension in March.

"I mean, it's just kind of obvious," Anzalone said about how he reached the conclusion that he deserved a raise. "Production, play, the market."

He was noncommittal when asked if he would be willing to hit the practice field in training camp without a new contract.

"I'm just taking this day-by-day right now," Anzalone said. "I mean, I hope. We'll see. I have no clue."

Anzalone, one of the first free agents signed by Campbell and Holmes during the 2021 offseason, has been one of the team's most reliable players during its meteoric rise. He hit his first extended stretch of injury woes this past season, when he broke his arm during a Week 11 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Perhaps it was a coincidence, but a defense that had held on pretty admirably in the wake of injuries to Aidan Hutchinson, Marcus Davenport and others suddenly fell off a cliff in Anzalone's absence, allowing 26 points per game during that six-game stretch. He urgently returned for the team's Week 18 finale against the Minnesota Vikings, when the defense allowed just nine points in a rousing victory.

"I feel like I've done that a lot (put the team first) through my four years here and I'm just in a situation where you want to be rewarded for that," Anzalone said, adding that he was surprised to not receive an extension in the spring.

Holmes has developed a reputation for paying his best players early; the reluctance to give Anzalone a new deal seems like a departure from Holmes' previous moves, which is probably why Anzalone described the situation as "weird" and transferred blame to the front office, saying, "It wasn't on my end or my agent's end."

"I'm disappointed," Anzalone said. "I'll just say that. I'm disappointed."

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