Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes has a lot of work to do this offseason to ensure the team wasn't a two-hit wonder in 2023 and 2024. The 2025 NFL season didn't see similar success, and the Lions won't be participating in the upcoming playoffs, making it clear that Holmes must work hard to ensure Detroit doesn't fade back into the semi-permanent obscurity the team lived in before.
This season saw steps back on both sides of the ball, but the offense's slippage was more consequential. Jared Goff didn't look like the same quarterback, and running backs Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery took steps back in production; Gibbs more severely from an efficiency standpoint.
The reason is obvious: the offensive line has become a weakness a year after being one of its strengths. Look through the history of football, and you'll find many teams that lost their playoff standing with a similar story, making it clear what Holmes must do this offseason.
Lions' Offensive Line Is Due for an Offseason Overhaul
The guards may have been the weakest links. Left guard Christian Mahogany and right guard Tate Ratledge own bottom-10 Pro Football Focus individual grades, while Kayode Awosika, who took over after Mahogany's fibula injury in early November, wasn't much better. Awosika could be a goner in free agency, with Miles Frazier's emergence. Ratledge may be a candidate to move to the center spot, but that may just create a potential need in the middle as well.
Right now, Detroit is using Graham Glasgow out of position at center right now anyway. There's also fan favorite Dan Skipper, who's looked out of place when he's been thrown into a bigger role this season.
Holmes needs to bring order to the interior offensive line. Signing an established center is a good start, but the guard spots need focus in the draft or free agency as well.
According toSpotrac, the Lionswill have just over $13.6 million in available cap spacethis offseason. That isn't a huge amount, which could force Holmes to turn to the 2026 NFL draft for more affordable help.
While Taylor Decker and Penei Sewell hold down the edges well, the former may be contemplating retirement this offseason. Meanwhile, Sewell just exited Week 17 with an early injury.
The NFL slate is grueling, and Decker admitted that the pain is making him consider retiring a year early and calling it quits after Week 18.
"Like I said, ideally, I would play. I would continue to play (at least one more year),” Decker said earlier this month, per Detroit Free Press' Dave Birkett. “But I just need to sit and evaluate... This is not a decision that I want to make now or kind of consider right now, 'cause it would be an emotional decision. 'Cause like I said, right now, this has not been a fun year. But I know if I remove those variables that have made it unfun, I still enjoy playing football. And I think I'm playing really well.”
That probably makes the blindside a position Holmes needs to focus on during the first two days of the draft. No pressure. He just has to fix nearly the entire offensive line, while potentially needing to convince Goff to restructure his contract to do so.
Holmes got the job in 2021 and has seen the team peak before crashing back down. If he can't get the needle moving in the right direction soon, Holmes may not have forever to get the job done in the Motor City.