The Lions’ left guard competition just changed completely, and Week 1 may look nothing like we expected
Christian Mahogany appeared headed for the Week 1 start. Now Detroit is splitting first-team reps, and Ben Bartch has a real chance to change that before Sunday.
The Detroit Lions left guard competition just took a major turn. Dan Campbell confirmed Tuesday that Ben Bartch and Christian Mahogany will split first-team reps all week, and both guards could see action against the New Orleans Saints in Week 1. The Lions’ starting left guard job remains wide open heading into the 2026 regular season, and this thing might get settled sooner than anyone expected.
Campbell laid it out plainly when asked about the possibility of both players seeing the field Sunday.
“Yeah, we could. You know, I think really this week is going to be— today they’re going to split. You know, I see them splitting on Thursday, I see them splitting on Friday, and then if nothing’s been decided by then, then maybe they both play.”
This changes the whole conversation
We’ve been looking at this differently now, because the assumption the entire time has been that Mahogany was going to start Week 1. That’s what we’ve all been thinking. Now there’s a real chance that might not even happen. Bartch could come in and win this job by Friday, and you might never see Mahogany start at left guard this season. That’s a whole other world we hadn’t even considered.
For weeks, the conversation around this position has operated under the idea that Detroit would start Mahogany for a few weeks and then maybe by Week 3 or Week 4, Bartch could overtake him. The thought process was always that it would take a little while, not something that happens overnight. Now it could happen overnight. Literally by the end of this week, the Lions could have a new starting left guard.
You can’t say that about any other position on this team unless an injury occurs. Nobody is going to win a starting job anywhere else on Detroit’s roster other than left guard. And the guy who could win it might be Bartch.
The case for Bartch
Look, it’s hard, because Mahogany is the guy we saw all summer. Bartch came into training camp hurt, and when he came back, he looked good. Then he suffered a concussion, and when he came back from that, he looked good again. Whenever he’s on the field, he looks good.
But have we seen enough? Have we seen him have a bad day? Have we seen what Bartch’s bad days look like? I don’t know. What I do know is that as a starter in the NFL, he has looked pretty good.
Going back to after the Lions signed him, it became pretty apparent they wanted a left guard battle, and Bartch was the guy I initially picked to win this thing. The injuries made me think they would cancel him out of the competition, but they haven’t. Now he has a legitimate chance to win this job before Sunday.
What to watch for this week
This is going to be a fascinating week of practice for the Detroit Lions. We’ll see where it goes. We’ll see what that depth chart looks like on Sunday. Maybe you see both guards. Maybe one guy plays the first half and the other guy plays the second half. Maybe they treat it like a preseason game.
Let’s see what happens.
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