Juice Scruggs is too good to sit, and the Lions already have a pretty obvious way to keep him on the field
Mays is back to take over at center, but Detroit doesn’t have to bury Scruggs on the bench. A role the Lions already experimented with could keep one of their best run blockers involved.
There’s been plenty of talk about what the Detroit Lions could or should do with Juice Scruggs now that Cade Mays is back. Mays is going to be the starting center for this Lions team, and that leaves Scruggs looking for a spot on Sunday.
One option has gotten overlooked in all of this. Scruggs could be Detroit’s swing tackle.
Why Juice Scruggs isn’t going to play guard
The guard spots are spoken for. Christian Mahogany is playing the best football of his career. Tate Ratledge is playing well on the other side. There’s no reason to pull either one of them off the field.
You also don’t want Scruggs and Mays rotating in and out at center. That kind of shuffling rarely helps an offensive line find its rhythm. Mays is the guy in the middle. Let him be the guy.
So where does that leave Scruggs? He’s too good of a player to just sit on the bench. That’s where the swing tackle idea comes in.
Scruggs fits what Detroit wants to do as an extra lineman
The big draw here is that Scruggs is already an established run blocker. He’s been particularly effective in that department this season, and that’s a valuable skill for an extra offensive lineman to have.
He also has the size for it. Scruggs is listed at 6-3, 320 pounds. That’s enough mass to handle blocking assignments in heavy formations. He is shorter than your conventional tackle, and that matters. Still, the Lions wouldn’t necessarily need him to play a traditional tackle role.
Detroit has options. The Lions could:
- Align him as an eligible sixth lineman
- Use him for double teams and downhill runs
- Position him inside while another lineman moves outside
The Lions have already dabbled with this. Back during OTAs and mandatory minicamp, Detroit gave Scruggs some looks as an additional lineman. This isn’t a brand-new concept they’d be pulling out of thin air.
Earlier this month, Dan Campbell discussed using Scruggs as a sixth offensive lineman in Detroit’s jumbo packages. He also indicated that Scruggs hadn’t given the coaching staff a reason to believe he couldn’t handle that responsibility. That tells you this idea has been on the staff’s mind for a while.
Try it against the Packers
I want to be clear about what I’m saying here. I’m not saying Scruggs is going to be a 100% Larry Borom replacement at swing tackle on every single rep. Scruggs has primarily played center and guard in his career. If you’re reading this and thinking I want to make Juice Scruggs a backup tackle, that’s not the point.
It’s also not a knock on Borom. He’s been fine as the swing tackle. There’s nothing wrong with what he’s done.
But this is something the Lions could do with Scruggs, and I want to see it in a game. If I’m Detroit, I’m trying it on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers. Instead of making Borom eligible, make Scruggs eligible. See what it looks like.
The matchup makes a lot of sense for it, too. As we mentioned in our Prediction Lab this week, the Lions are going to want some heavier sets against this Packers defense. They need to push these guys around and open up holes in the run game. Putting a 320-pound interior lineman out there as a sixth blocker fits that plan perfectly.
Think about what that does for the offense. Green Bay sees an extra big body and has to account for it. Scruggs can climb on a double team, wash a defender down the line, or give Detroit another mauler at the point of attack on a downhill run. That’s the kind of football this team wants to play.
I think the Lions will do it. They’ve already kind of tested it in the spring, and the coaching staff seems comfortable with Scruggs in that role. I think you’ll see him on the field this week as an extra lineman.
Let’s see what happens.
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