From one of the best offensive lines in the NFL last year to a work in progress. That’s one of the Detroit Lions‘ priorities with the start of training camp.
Still led by tackle Penei Sewell, the Lions will have to replace center Frank Ragnow due to retirement and the loss of right guard Kevin Zeitler in free agency has opened up competition for at least two new starters. Graham Glasgow, who started at left guard last season and has experience at center, along with rookie Tate Ratledge are getting reps at center through four days of training camp.
And then there’s the banged-up veteran Taylor Decker at left tackle.
“It’s been great,” Lions quarterback Jared Goff said Thursday. “Tate, I thought, was doing a good job. Graham was in there today, and I’ve been comfortable with Graham for quite some time. Whoever it ends up being, I’ll be good with.”
After Ratledge saw the bulk of center reps the first three days of camp, Glasgow took the center snaps Thursday.
Ratledge played only guard at Georgia except for a few practice snaps at center. So he’s adjusting to the NFL game and to playing a new position.
“I think just the speed of everything happening,” Ratledge said. “At guard you have a little bit of a delay being off the ball and then, of course, you get up here and you’re going against quicker guys.”
He has no preference for guard or center.
“I enjoy football,” said Ratledge, a second-round pick out of Georgia. “It doesn’t matter where I am on the field.”
Coach Dan Campbell said earlier in the week that he would keep his eye on the offensive line.
“(Ratledge is) getting it all at once,” Campbell said. “It’s everything, it is. It’s the mental, and it’s the technique of it. So, yeah, look, we’re putting a lot on him. He’s drinking out of a fire hose right now, but there are things that we saw with him in college at Georgia that we felt like, ‘You know what? We think this guy can play center.'”
Decker remains sidelined while recovering from offseason shoulder surgery, but is expected to join the team after the Hall of Fame game on July 31. He’s been on the sidelines at camp daily.
“The standard is the standard,” Decker said. “We’re expected to be one of the top offensive lines in the league. You lose big pieces, but we’ve put those expectations on ourselves and put ourselves in a position where we’re expected to perform a certain way and it doesn’t matter.”
Pro Bowl right tackle Sewell is healthy and practicing daily.
Christian Mahogany has been a sort of utility lineman for the Lions the past couple of years. He played in seven games in 2024 and started two, including a playoff game. Kayode Awosika, who started 11 games at guard in 2024, will also contend for a starting guard spot.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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