Everyone has questions about the Detroit Lions’ offensive line

As we head to the mostly closed training camp in August, one of the most question mark units in the Detroit Lions remains the offensive line. Kyle Meinke began his series of camp breakthroughs with that group, saying he “is heading for a tough shake.” Despite the return of the left side of the line, the complete overhaul of the right side of the line with a costly new right tackle and no clear replacement for Graham Glasgow took into account Meinke’s assessment. Lions Wire’s Jeff Risdon agreed and wrote yesterday that the cancellation of the preseason games is “a big problem for the Lions’ rebuilt offensive line.” Risdon noted there will be new starters on the field, but also a recently promoted position coach (Hank Fraley) who runs the offensive line room.

Questions surely flood the answers; Our own intrepid leader Jeremy Reisman pointed out in the Detroit Pride camp preview for the inside offensive line, it’s not even a certainty that Joe Dahl will return as the starting left guard (as Meinke assumes). Fortunately for the Lions, they have two anchors to build on the left tackle and the center. Doug Farrar of the USA Today Touchdown Wire ranked Frank Ragnow 7th on his list of the league’s 11 best centers:

One of the team’s best players, the master angler will have to turn to another solid season for the offensive line to keep Stafford upright in 2020. Big Ten All-Decade Second Team winner Taylor Decker is on a one-year contract. . Developing a great finale for last season would put him in a fantastic trading position.

A little further down the depth chart, Lions Wire’s Erik Schlitt thought that a possible roster battle between Oday Aboushi and Beau Benzschawel was one of the following weeks:

The team has veteran guards to turn to in Dahl, Aboushi, and Wiggins, but don’t be surprised if offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell chooses to swap the line character with one of the rookies. After all, remember what Kent Lee Platte said about those draft guard picks:

It is reduced to scheme and use. Choosing a guy like Jackson made less sense for this scheme in a bubble, just like Stenberg. Choosing both shows that my assumptions about the schema were wrong, and as I reworked those assumptions, things began to line up.

Many zone-based career schemes, whether indoors, outdoors, or otherwise, rely on guards to be agile and quick to cross the line and do much of the work in space. the Philadelphia EaglesThose of us who had assumed that the Lions were trying to reflect their offensive line later, as well as Jeff Davidson’s previous teams, relied on this type of philosophy.

If the Lions, instead, relied on center and tackles to do that kind of job, needing guards to act as anchors and power on the line, then a team would likely value a skill set like Jonah Jackson on a Hennessy or especially Cushenberry (which is much finer). It even makes the Halapoulivaati Vaitai the firm looks even better in retrospect, and already i liked that.

With so many new names on the guard and tackle list, it’s no wonder that the offensive line was also on Mike Payton’s question list for training camp earlier today. But now, we move on to the rest of today’s Notes:

• Athletic’s Bill Shea entered the most recent (non-sand) professional soccer championship in Michigan:

• Coach Caskey’s base wastes no time in getting into action:

[Editor’s note: More on this initiative next week. Stay tuned.]