Drew Petzing might be exactly what the Detroit Lions’ offensive line has needed all along
Detroit Lions offensive line could be in for a bigger turnaround than many expect. Drew Petzing has a history of elevating overlooked linemen, and his track record suggests Detroit’s rebuilt front may thrive in 2026.
Make no mistake about it, the Detroit Lions have a real issue with their offensive line in 2025. You saw that more than anywhere in their run game. Especially late in the season when injuries were really hitting the line.
In 2024, the Lions had what many agreed to be either the best offensive line or one of the best offensive lines in football. Especially in the run game were the Lions had a rushing success rate of 49.3. That was second in the league behind only the Philadelphia Eagles. By the end of 2025, the Lions had dropped to 40.1%. That was 26th in the league. For a team that wants to run the ball before they do anything else, that’s just not good enough.
Now they’re going into the 2026 season with a new offensive coordinator in Drew Petzing and a pretty much brand-new offensive line. The good news is that…
Drew Petzing has quietly been a whiz with offensive linemen and the run game
Everyone will point to how bad the Cardinals have been in recent years, but it’s really been more of a quarterback injury issue and a bad defense issue. One spot the Cardinals have had no problem in is the run game. As Ben Solak of ESPN pointed out over the weekend, the Cardinals under Petzing were 14th in rushing success rate, fifth in rush EPA, and second in explosive rush rate from 2023-2025.
It’s worth noting that the Cardinals have not had a Pro Bowl or All-Pro offensive lineman since 2022. They did this with guys like Hjalte Forhodlt, former Lion Evan Brown, Paris Johnson, Jonah Williams, and Isaiah Adams. All decent linemen, but none of these guys jump off the page at you.
It’s worth noting that you see a major shift with these players once they got with Petzing in Arizona. Froholdt, for example, was a backup center in Cleveland and had three career seasons under Petzing. Brown had the best season of his career under Petzing in 2024, but dealt with injuries in 2025.
The Lions have theoretically a much better line to work with than what Petzing had in Arizona. While he had some decent guys there, he dealt with a whirlwind of injury issues on that line and the snap counts tell you it was ever changing. But the overall point is that Petzing has shown to be able to get blood from a stone when it comes to some average linemen.
The feeling now is that he should be able to get a lot out of second-year guard Tate Ratledge, new center Cade Mays, and rookie Blake Miller and get this run game back to where it needs to be.
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