After the Detroit Lions signed Cade Mays and drafted Blake Miller, their offensive line looked to be set. Long a strength for Dan Campbell and the Lions, the offensive line looked like it would be in good shape as Detroit embarked on its bounce-back season.
Unfortunately, the training camp hasn't gone according to plan. Cade Mays suffered an injury and will be sidelined for a few months. This has forced the Lions to scramble to find the best five-man unit.
Even though the Lions have been moving players around and trying different o-line combinations, they have yet to find a starting five that they feel comfortable with.
Lions still have offensive line questions to answer
From left to right, Penei Sewell, Christian Mahogany, Juice Scruggs, Tate Ratledge, and Blake Miller seem to be the Lions' preferred offensive line right now. Coach Campbell had talked about this group with optimism earlier in the week. According to Jeremy Reisman of The Pride of Detroit, however, this group wasn't particularly impressive on Thursday.
Reisman reported that there were "several missed assignments" and a false start, which has apparently been a "frustratingly common occurrence." Things weren't any better for the second-team offense, either.
This is especially significant because the Lions also tried out two veteran offensive linemen yesterday. Former Lions starter Laken Tomlinson and former Cardinals guard Will Hernandez were at practice on Thursday.
While camp tryouts are very common, Tomlinson and Hernandez are not like any other free agents. They are highly experienced and competent veterans who were starters just last year. Tomlinson is a very familiar face in Detroit, and Hernandez played under Drew Petzing for years in Arizona.
Bringing in two high-profile guards suggests that the Lions are still desperately searching. Earlier in training camp, Campbell had said that the left guard spot was wide open. The problem is that the Lions didn't have the camp bodies to have a proper competition. Juice Scruggs was dealing with an injury, and upon his return, he was moved to center. Ben Bartch also missed a lot of the training camp. This meant that Christian Mahogany was penciled in at left guard by default.
Yet, it's clear that the Lions aren't entirely happy with Mahogany as the starting LG. He may have been better than expected as a starter last season, but he isn't a difference-maker. The Lions are hoping that they can find that difference-maker among the veteran free agents.
It's certainly not ideal to still be searching this hard on the offensive line. But this is what training camp is for. The Lions have proven themselves to be resilient amid injuries. So before Lions fans start worrying about the state of the offensive line, they have to wait and see how the next nine days before the roster cutdown date go.
Add us as a preferred source on Google