Lions adding former Buccaneers guard to practice squad, but their offensive line search shouldn’t stop here
Elijah Klein appeared in 26 games over two seasons with Tampa Bay and made one start at left guard, giving Detroit another developmental option as it continues evaluating the position.
The Detroit Lions are adding another player to their 16-man practice squad, bringing their total to 15. They’re bringing in offensive lineman Elijah Klein, who has spent the last two seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He’s suited up for 26 games there with one start.
While we did mention that Klein suited up for 26 games, he’s only actually played on offense in five of them. He’s done mostly special teams work in all the rest of them. The one start he had came against the New York Jets in 2025. He played 79 snaps in that game and finished with an impressive 79.0 pass-blocking grade from Pro Football Focus. He allowed two pressures and no sacks. He did have a 32.4 run-blocking grade.
The Lions are openly looking for more competition for the starting left guard job, but Klein probably has a pretty uphill battle if he wants to net it. Ben Bartch is on the roster, and the Lions are likely to still be on the lookout for a veteran guard.
The Bucs tried a few different things with him. He played left guard, right guard, and in the Bucs’ preseason finale, he played right tackle. At UTEP, he was a right guard and nothing else. So the Lions are going to have to do some teaching here, but he’s young and moldable still.
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