Projection Shows How Much Better the Lions’ O-Line Could Be in 2026 — With One Big Concern Left
The numbers suggest a major improvement is coming for the Detroit Lions’ offensive line in 2026. But there’s still one key concern hanging over it.
2025 was not a good year for the Detroit Lions’ offensive line. Not at all. While Jared Goff still put up really good numbers across the board despite this, he got sacked 38 times. This was more than any other season in his 10-year career. What made it worse is that besides the sacks, he just got hit a lot, too. More than ever before.
How Jared Goff got hit so much in 2025
This was pretty bad, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist or a really good detective to see it happening on the field. Goff was running for his life quite a bit, and we all know he can’t really run that fast. It was actually a miracle that he was still able to put up the numbers he did.
Now that we know the number of times he got hit and sacked. I want to delve deeper into this and see who was allowing this pressure and how the Lions have done this offseason, and if they can ensure this will be a lot less of a blow in 2026.
| Player | Sacks Allowed | Hits Allowed | Hurries Allowed | Pressures allowed |
| Taylor Decker | 2 | 3 | 28 | 33 |
| Christian Mahogany | 6 | 5 | 16 | 27 |
| Tate Ratledge | 2 | 9 | 13 | 24 |
| Graham Glasgow | 1 | 8 | 10 | 19 |
| Penei Sewell | 2 | 6 | 11 | 19 |
So, one thing to know about hits is that it’s not really a standalone stat. It’s more of a combination of all four of these things, and everyone tracks it differently. It’s one of the pains of analytics for sure. These numbers come from Pro Football Focus.
What you see is that the left side of the Lions’ offensive line had a lot of issues in 2025. Taylor Decker took a step back, and Christian Mahogany struggled with pass blocking quite a bit.
So what is the fix? It’s pretty simple, and it’s already done right? Penei Sewell moving to the left side is a massive overhaul at the position. Decker was good for a long time, but Sewell is one of the best, if not the very best, tackles in the NFL. Quite a change.
Ok, now, I want to take a look at what the new line looks like using last year’s numbers. Keep in mind, these are last year’s numbers, and some of them are from the college ranks. We’re just getting an idea here.
| Player | Sacks Allowed | Hits Allowed | Hurries Allowed | Pressures allowed |
| Penei Sewell | 2 | 6 | 11 | 19 |
| Christian Mahogany | 6 | 5 | 16 | 27 |
| Cade Mays | 0 | 4 | 9 | 13 |
| Tate Ratledge | 2 | 9 | 13 | 24 |
| Blake Miller | 2 | 2 | 10 | 14 |
That is a significant change for the most part. Ratledge should be much improved in year two. he actually wasn’t too bad in his rookie year. He’s going to get better and better.
There are legitamate questions at left guard right now. We think it’s going to be Mahogany there at the end of the day, but Miles Frazier and Juice Scruggs could put up real fights. Whoever gets the gig is going to really benefit from having Sewell next to him.
Either way you look at it, it’s really hard to see the Lions offensive line having the same issues it had in 2025. Even with bumps in the road from having young players, there should still be major improvement.
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