# Dan Campbell pleased with early returns from Lions center Cade Mays
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The biggest difference between playing for the Detroit Lions and Carolina Panthers?
The weather, according to Cade Mays.
“It’s a lot hotter in Carolina than it is up here,” Mays said Monday, moments after he wrapped up his first padded practice…
The early returns on that investment seem to be encouraging
“We’re throwing a lot at him,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said Monday. "He’s got a lot on him. The Mike points, all of those things, where we’re going. We’ve got a lot of scheming right now. We’ve had this system in place for four years now, so it’s a lot.
“For (quarterback Jared) Goff, it’s not a lot. For (Mays), when you just walk through the door, there’s a lot going on here. But I feel like he’s handling it well. I think every day he gets more and more comfortable. … I think he’s a good fit for us.”
The Lions desperately need Mays, a center, to work out in the middle of their offensive line. The unit was thrown into flux ahead of last season after Frank Ragnow’s sudden retirement in June 2025 forced Graham Glasgow, who hadn’t mainly played center since the 2018 season, to start at the position. Glasgow’s shift to center also limited Detroit’s depth at guard
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“It’s been good,” Mays said of his mental acclimation. “Just taking it day by day, leaning on (Goff), letting him help me where I have questions. (Offensive line coach Hank Fraley) has done a great job getting me up to speed, Penei (Sewell), everybody in the room. Any questions I have, they’ve all been great helping me.”
Mays assured the offense isn’t any more difficult to learn than usual, but he’s been trying to get up to speed with Detroit’s terminology versus what was used by the Panthers, who he played four seasons with from 2022-25. Mays allowed 13 pressures in 476 snaps as a pass protector in Carolina last season, according to Pro Football Focus.
He was one of six qualified centers in the NFL (minimum 300 snaps in pass protection) to not allow a sack, along with Indianapolis’ Tanor Bortolini, San Francisco’s Jake Brendel, Philadelphia’s Cam Jurgens, Buffalo’s Connor McGovern and Denver’s Luke Wattenberg.
The work between Goff and Mays to get on the same page began before OTAs, with the two “just getting together and talking through things, what (Goff) likes, how I see things, how he sees things.” There’s also been an effort to foster off-field chemistry, something Goff said he planned on being intentional about.
“Relationships outside of football make it stronger when you’re out here,” Mays said.
Pads came on for the first time Monday, and the offensive line’s chemistry isn’t a finished product. But the Lions targeted Mays this offseason with a vision, and Mays, one of the keys to Detroit’s bounce back, is so far trending in the right direction.
“He’s settling in nice,” Campbell said of Mays on Monday. “I thought yesterday he had some really good reps. Just some things that showed up over the two days prior that Hank coached him up on, that he knew he could be a little bit better at, and then I thought it showed up yesterday. That’s good.”
