NFL analyst predicts young Lions player to be one of the biggest breakout players of 2025, why Detroit needs this to happen
The Detroit Lions have had their fair share of breakout players during the Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes regime. Guys like Amon-Ra St. Brown or Alex Anzalone have had breakouts and become big parts of the team over time. There have been others, too. Pro Football Focus' Bradley Locker put out his 2025 All-Breakout team […]
The Detroit Lions have had their fair share of breakout players during the Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes regime. Guys like Amon-Ra St. Brown or Alex Anzalone have had breakouts and become big parts of the team over time. There have been others, too.
Pro Football Focus' Bradley Locker put out his 2025 All-Breakout team on Tuesday, and it included Lions guard Christian Mahogany. Here's Locker's reasoning:
"After the Lions lost the aforementioned Zeitler to Tennessee, the team’s depth at guard took a hit. Nonetheless, Detroit can still be comfortable with the state of the position given how Mahogany performed as a rookie.
The former sixth-round pick wowed in limited time in 2024, registering a 91.5 overall PFF grade on 144 snaps between left and right guard. Mahogany slotted in the 99th percentile in PFF pass-blocking grade on true pass sets as well as the 97th percentile in negatively graded run-blocking play rate, revealing his well-rounded abilities.
Detroit will be without two members of its starting IOL from a year ago in light of Frank Ragnow’s retirement, and GM Brad Holmes seems to have made it clear that Mahogany and rookie Tate Ratledge will be in for sizable workloads. Based on offensive line coach Hank Fraley’s skill in cultivating stars, Mahogany could be next up in the Motor City."
Locker touched on it in there, but with Ragnow and Zeitler gone, the Lions' offensive line went from the proven best in the league to a very young, unproven group seemingly overnight.
This is a team that would like to contend for a Super Bowl in 2025, and therefore, they need this breakout to happen, as well as needing Ratledge to have a strong rookie season and Graham Glasgow to bounce back from a down year.
The Lions seem to feel good about Mahogany based on how well he played last year with essentially no training camp and very few NFL reps. This year, he will have those things as he won't be going into camp on the NFI list and won't be starting his season there either. We're going to find out right away what he can do.
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