what are you cats thinking and seeing, so far?
Thank you for your thoughts, and I’m going to try to be a MUCH better lions fan, this year.
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I don’t think anyone would ever question your Lions fandom Natty. The only way you could possibly improve it would be
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Going to have to wait and see. My initial thoughts are always pessimistic when it comes to our Leo’s.
To much change. Not enough improvement seen to end last year. Another rookie. Center is new and hurt.
I don’t feel good about it. But what else is new?
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I feel great about the Oline. It’s got legitimate depth for the first time ever as Lion’s fans
They could do a lot of different combinations to get the best 5 out there, will be interesting to see what Fraley decides to do
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Here’s how I look at it. Barring some edge-case weirdness, this year’s OL ought to be markedly better than last year’s.
For all the wailing and gnashing of teeth, last year’s OL was good enough to enable a top-5 offense. Unless you feel like ARSB, Goff, Gibby, and Co will take a step back, the offense should be at least as good as last year.
If you’ve got a top-five offense, you ought to be a contender if the defense and special teams can be decent.
I’m not worried about Jack Fox and crew on special teams.
That leaves the defense as the final variable. How they perform will likely be the difference between Super Bowl contender and fighting for a wild card.
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My thoughts? A OL is going to be our #1 in the 2027 draft.
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The main reason for my pessimism
The line has been mismanaged and now we are paying the price. Three years ago we were debating where in the top 5 in the league the line is. Now it is hard to argue that we are top half. Hall of Fame tackle and four question marks. Getting Mays was smart but now he is out until Novemberish. It won’t be until the latter part of the year that there is enough continuity to even know if this line is any good. If the line otherwise stays healthy then I’ll feel a bit more optimistic. Ratledge or Scruggs missing time would make for a miserable season
I was feeling a lot more confident about our Oline about 2 weeks ago. At this point I’m a little worried.
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Ill wait till the real games start to hold any thoughts. Losing Mays might hurt a ton, but that hasn’t been detriment yet.
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Good question Natty. My take:
Sewell: Pro Bowl guy
Blake Miller: gonna be a solid rookie
Tate Ratledge: good 1st year, 2nd will be even better.
Love Cade Mays, Juice Scruggs better than Glasgow in 2025, I’m excited about Seth McLaughlin but he is a 3rd string guy. Maybe better than Scruggs?
LOG? Hard to say. Bartch? Mahogany? Concern for LOG.
Back ups: Borom (solid), Fraser (great depth guy), loser LOG battle…I like depth.
Overall: l’m concerned but hood stuff there too,
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What? He’ll be back by week 7 at the latest and that’s playing it extremely safe
As far as the overall OL, looks good to me on paper and it’ll only get better as the year goes on, barring injury. Depth is the best we’ve had in the Campbell/Holmes era
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Isn’t that mostly that we didn’t properly plan or forecast for Rags’ retirement? Are there other elements of mismanagement that you are thinking of?
The sad reality is that there are less starting caliber NFL linemen in this world then there are NFL starting positions.
As to the initial question, I have no idea if we have done enough. I like the amount of depth and redundancy but are the top five good enough and will they come together and play as a well synchronized unit? 
. Certainly hope so as that is what will determine whether or not we are once again one of the league’s best teams.
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Depth is going to be a huge problem for us, like always.
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I think all four spots other than Sewell. It isn’t as if we had a bunch of young guys. We knew Ragnow was hurt. We knew Decker was hurt. The replacements they brought in prior to last year were not long term solutions and what little young depth they did have (Manu, Sorsdal) was not good.
While they are masterclass and I don’t necessarily expect everyone to emulate them (or even to be able), look how the Eagles manage their line. They had used high picks on Jurgen and Steen who sat for a couple of years. They developed Mailata. This year they used another 3rd on a tackle, I suspect anticipating they will have to replace Johnson soon.
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I didn’t state an extreme. “novemberish” you know, sometime around november. It hardly matters if I was off by a couple of weeks, my point wouldn’t change at all. It is going to take most of the season for our starting five to get a lot of reps together, whether that “most” starts optimistically in early October or more realistically, Novemberish.
You could have written everything else in your post without reacting and it would have been a great take. Instead you chose to @ me for no discernable reason
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I’m not real concerned with the O line and we have depth. Defense has been my gripe, that and injuries, but I want our defensive group to rank higher than last season by at least a step or two. so for me it’s the injury bug that really bothers me. never really see how far this team could go without half the team having some kind of injury.
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I’m guessing @BigNatty will be replying something like this when he sees.
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Thought it was good to see them play Frazier the whole game and looks like he’ll be the utility backup. Someone mentioned it in another thread but he looked better at LT
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