Dan Campbell confirms a suspicion about the Lions’ offensive line: They’re not going to do the wrong thing with one of their best guys
Dan Campbell cleared up something that had Detroit Lions fans a little nervous after Sunday’s practice. One of Detroit’s best young offensive linemen suddenly spent a lot of time somewhere unexpected. Turns out, the Lions aren’t about to mess with a very good thing.
The Detroit Lions gave right guard Tate Ratledge a heavy workload at center during Sunday’s practice, and it raised some eyebrows among Lions fans. With starting center Cade Mays dealing with a wrist injury that will keep him out until October, Detroit needs to figure out its center situation. Mays is expected to miss 8 to 10 weeks based on initial reports, putting his return timeline around October. So when Ratledge started taking the majority of center snaps on Sunday, some fans understandably got nervous.
You can understand why. At this point, Ratledge looks like a potential Pro Bowl or All-Pro right guard in the making. He’s an ascending player in this league, and he has looked really good this summer. I have barely written anything about Ratledge, and it’s not because he’s playing bad. It’s because I don’t even have to worry about him. He just does his job, and he does it well. So the idea of pulling him away from right guard to plug him in at center felt like a head-scratcher.
Dan Campbell clears the air on Ratledge’s center reps
The good news came Monday when Dan Campbell held his presser before the Lions’ annual night practice. Campbell made it clear that the center reps were about preparation, not a position change.
“Yeah, I think that was just, getting him some reps. I mean, one way or another, he’s going to have to be able to help us there if it comes down to that, where he’s the guy or he’s our next available center at the game if something happens, knock on wood( he actually knocked on wood). So I think it was just, you know, that, that’s what some of that was. I don’t know if we’ll do that tonight. Probably get Juice (Scruggs). We got Juice capped on reps today, so he won’t get all of them. And then we’ll probably put Seth (McLaughlin) back in there and let him go a little bit, keeping Tate over at right guard.”
That last line is the key one. Campbell is keeping Ratledge at right guard.
Does Ratledge even want to play center?
Campbell was also asked whether Ratledge wants to play center or if he’s more comfortable at right guard, and whether that factors into the decision.
“Well, look, you, as much as you can, you want a player to be comfortable. I mean, that’s, you really do. But at some point, if we have no choice, you know, then, then you got to do what you got to do. And the players know that. I mean, Tate knows that, you know, he’ll do whatever for the team. But, but yeah, we certainly take that into account too, man. We want somebody that, You know, you got to be willing to take that leap a little bit. So, you know, if it came to that, a guy like Tate, he’s prepared to do that. He’s a team guy. So that’s really what it was.”
What this means for the Lions’ offensive line
The Lions are heading into the regular season without their starting center, the guy they just paid $25 million to get. Both Juice Scruggs and Seth McLaughlin are more than capable of holding down that spot, and I see both of them making the 53-man roster at this point.
The Ratledge-at-center experiment was basically a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency drill. If one or both of those guys somehow get injured at the same time, Detroit knows Ratledge can take snaps there. That’s all this was. The Lions aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel or move Ratledge from right guard to center on a permanent basis. Campbell confirmed it Monday — they were just kicking tires. Nobody freak out.
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