The Detroit Lions are one of the top teams in the NFL entering 2025, but they have way more questions than they had a year ago. Two new coordinators and a slew of new faces are some of the storylines heading into this year’s training camp. But the biggest question may be how they will handle the loss of center Frank Ragnow.
Ragnow decided to retire in June and sent the Lions scrambling to find his replacement. While rookie Tate Ratledge was the favorite to win the job, he may be forced to swap positions as a veteran has emerged as the frontrunner in the first week of training camp.
Graham Glasgow Could Wind Up Becoming the Lions Starting Center During Training Camp
Lions offensive coordinator John Morton spoke to reporters after practice on Monday and laid out the current battle for the starting center spot. While Ratledge was considered the favorite to win the job after working at center during minicamp, Morton made it seem like the job was veteran Graham Glasgow’s to lose.
“I do like where they’re at right now,” Morton said via The Athletic’s Colton Pouncy. “I think Ratledge has done a good job. I mean, we had him at center first and now we moved him to guard. Glasgow is at the center now, I think that’s more natural for him. Because that center and quarterback [relationship], that needs to be right. The quarterback has got to feel right there. I do like the way it’s going right now. It’s still early, the more we do it, the better we’re going to get.”
This may not be an indictment on Ratledge as much as it is just experimenting with combinations during the offseason program. A right guard during his career at Georgia, eyebrows were raised when offensive line coach Hank Fraley revealed Ratledge was working at center during rookie minicamp. When Ragnow retired, the “cross training” turned into an audition for a full-time job, and the Lions even gave Ratledge all of the first-team reps at center during their first camp practice.
While Ratledge wasn’t a disaster at the position, it seems like they prefer Glasgow at center due to his previous experience in 2018. Pro Football Focus graded Glasgow 15th out of 38 qualifying centers with a 71.1 overall grade that season, and he held his own in protection with a 73.8 pass-blocking grade and 21 pressures allowed in 628 snaps.
Glasgow has since played guard for the majority of the time since that season, but told reporters he prefers playing center due to the mental challenge it provides.
“I do like playing center,” Glasgow said via Justin Rogers of the Detroit Football Network. “Center’s fun. I like the mental load that comes with it. I think there’s – it’s a challenge, but I think that’s something that I’m pretty good at, so I like to do it. If it came to me having to play center and make the calls or me be a guard and then think about the calls anyways, just to make sure that the calls were right, I’d probably just rather play center.”
The move doesn’t doom Ratledge’s chances of starting Week 1 and may actually enhance them since he’ll be back at his natural position at guard. It also doesn’t kill his chances of starting at center eventually, as he can continue to cross-train and make a potential move at the beginning of next season.
Either way, it seems like a big change that might not be one at all, but an important storyline to follow as the Lions open the preseason on Thursday night against the Los Angeles Chargers in the annual Hall of Fame Game.