As I was saying, this team isn't making the playoffs and that's why I created this thread when I did. Anyways, onward and upward hopefully.
The failings of this offensive line are on Brad Holmes and the Lions front office, full stop. This doesn't mean I hate Brad Holmes. I don't. This doesn't mean I suddenly think Brad sucks. He doesn't. He is still a very good GM and one of the better ones in the league. But the offensive line was once the identity of this team. They had one of the top rated lines in the league, a top 5 line, over the past three season. They controlled the line of scrimmage and imposed their will on other teams. They ran the ball down the throats of others and had no problem giving Goff ample time to setup for play action and look off to multiple read in pass protection.
Now, this season, the offensive line has become a liability at times. One week it looks alright and the next, depending on personnel and who they are playing defensively, it looks like a disaster. Yesterday, against the Steelers, was one of those games where it looked like a disaster.
What makes it worse is that this did not come out of nowhere. For the last two offseasons, fans and media alike openly speculated about Frank Ragnow’s future with the team. The injuries, the wear and tear, the toll of playing through pain, none of this was a secret. We knew Ragnow was bagned up. Yet when Ragnow finally retired, the Lions were completely unprepared. There was no succession plan, no young center waiting in the wings, no real answer other than shuffling a declining veteran in Graham Glasgow in there and hoping for the best. That is a front office failure. That is a Brad Holmes failure.
Ragnow was the glue that held everything together. He set protections, handled communication, and anchored both the run game and pass protection. Once he was gone, everything unraveled this season. Graham Glasgow is not the same Graham Glasgow we remember from two, three, four, five years ago. He's on the wrong side of 30, declining in play, and asked to elevate the play of rookies and career backups alongside him at the Guard spots week after week. It would be one thing is Graham was playing alongside a veteran like Kevin Zeitler or a second year guy who played a full season, were Mahogany fully healthy all season. But he didn't get that and his play has clearly struggled as a result of that and his age. The tape matches the numbers. His grades have fallen, the run blocking isn't as dominate, and QB pressures allowed have increased. This is not an indictment of Glasgow as much as it is an indictment of the front office for asking him to be something he clearly is not at this stage of his career.
We have all watched the communication issues pile up this season, blown assignments, late calls, free rushers straight up the middle and blowing by our rotation of Guards and Glasgow himself. That does not just hurt the offensive line, it wrecks the entire offense. The Lions’ run blocking has fallen off a cliff at times, as it did yesterday against Pittsburgh. The interior pass protection has been among the worst stretches we have seen under this regime. Defenders are living in the backfield and blowing up players before they get started because the middle simply cannot hold up. For an offense that is predicated on timing, rythym, running the ball, dictating pace of play, and dominating in TOP, they did the opposite of this at times this season.
What makes all of this so frustrating is that the Lions had multiple chances to get ahead of this and did not. The 2024 NFL Draft should have been the moment they addressed the interior offensive line and found a replacement for one of Glasgow or Ragnow. Instead, they doubled up at CB and drafted the always injured Ennis Rakestraw. Meanwhile, interior linemen who could have been immediate solutions were right there. The excuse that cornerback had to be addressed by doubling down in the draft does not hold water either. That position could have been supplemented in free agency far more easily than center. Quality veteran corners hit the market every year. Reliable centers do not. You draft and develop those guys, and the Lions chose not to. That choice is now killing them in run blocking, in pass protection, short yardage situations, on 3rd and long, and in overall offensive consistency.
Brad Holmes has shown a penchent for wanting to be aggressive in the draft with his picks and trade up. He was willing to do it multiple times for shiny toys at WR and was almost willing to do it to draft Levi back during his first draft. Why then didn't he do it for the identity and once clear strength of this team, the offensive line? In the 2024 draft he could have tried trading up for someone like Zach Frazier or Jackson Powers Johnson. Maybe he did and we just don't know about it. And if he did, then I'll say I'm wrong, apologize, and move on. It would have been a proactive move to do so. Even standing pat and drafting players like Roger Rosengarten or Cooper Beebe instead of Rakestraw would have shown foresight. Instead, the Lions ignored the warning signs.
None of this is revisionist history either. It isn't like we as fans and the media were caught off guard (pun slightly intended) by the retirement of Ragnow or decline in play from Glasgow or struggles by backup lineman when asked to take on starting roles. And this is just us focusing on the interior issues. This doesn't even begin to address the Taylor Decker problem at Tackle. This is another issue all itself.
Taylor Decker's age, banged up body, and unfortunate decline in play over the course of this season is another uncomfortable truth the Lions have to face. Decker has been a steady presence for years, no doubt. He's been an anchor on this line. I'm no expert by any means. I've gotten lots of things wrong, as have we all. But the tape and the results show a player who is no longer consistently winning at the point of attack or holding up in pass protection against top edge rushers or even league average guys at times. Age and wear are catching up, and that is not a criticism so much as a reality of the NFL.
The Decker situation is exactly where Brad Holmes has to learn from his mistakes on the interior and be proactive instead of reactive. Drafting Ratledge, while a very good pick, was still reactive, instead of proactive. The Lions cannot wait until Decker falls off a cliff or retires to start searching for answers. This offseason needs to include a real plan to identify and develop Decker’s long term replacement, whether that is through the draft or a smart roster move, so they are not caught flat footed yet again. I don't look at Giovani Manu as the long-term replacement either. He hasn't stayed healthy enough to play a full season and wasn't lighting the world on fire when he did play. I mean, I guess he wasn't a complete liability at Tackle when he was in, but they can and should do better IMO.
If Detroit truly wants to rebuild the offensive line into a strength, it has to start with planning ahead at Tackle instead of repeating the same failures we just watched unfold in the middle of the line. I think significant, high round, draft capital has to be used on getting one of a Center or Tackle (or both) in this year's draft. I'm talking a first or second round pick if the players are there to be had. I haven't done enough research yet to know who those guys might be. But that's Brad and the scouting team's job to do, not mine or any fans. I'm sure I'll have names of players I like later on in the offseason.
At the end of the day, the blame belongs with Brad Holmes and the front office for allowing a strength to become a liability at times this season. This is not about one bad game or one bad injury, it is about two straight offseasons of not doing enough, not being proactive enough, to address an obvious long term issue on the roster. The interior offensive line is broken because the front office let it break. If the Lions are serious about fixing this and getting back to their identity on offense, they must address the line in this year's draft and via free agency. I think they need one of a Center or Guard, depnding on where they want to put Ratledge. They also need a Tackle to address the Decker situation long-term. They just need to get their identity back and build the offensive line into a top unit again. And yeah, I know, much easier said then done. I still like Brad Holmes and trust in him and his staff to be able to do this.
They mentioned this stat from a ticket texter on 97.1 that if you take away the Steelers 45 yard runs, they still averaged over 5.5/ypc. The run defense used to be another strength of their that took a big step back yesterday and this season. Paging Alim McNeill, Alim McNeill to the service desk please.
