2. DE Josh Paschal
Paschal finished his third NFL season with two sacks, 21 total tackles and five tackles for loss over 14 games (10 starts). Surface stats obviously don't always reflect the impact a defensive lineman has, and Pro Football Focus did credit him with a solid-looking 34 quarterback pressures. But Paschal's pass rush win rate (5.5 percent) was outside the top-100 among qualified edge rushers, and PFF was broadly not complementary of his work (No. 107 in overall grade among 119 qualified edge rushers).
Ideally, taking whatever roadblocks that may come into play into account, a top-50 draft pick would be more noticeable and impactful on a consistent basis by Year 3. Paschal simply has not been, as he now moves toward the final year of his rookie contract and a make-or-break year for his future in Detroit.
1. OG Graham Glasgow
Glasgow came back to the Lions in 2023 free agency on a one-year deal, and he followed with an excellent season as the starting right guard (top-10 PFF grade among all guards).
One of Glasgow's best qualities is his versatility. He was brought back on a multi-year deal last offseason, then to accommodate the signing of Kevin Zeitler he moved over to be the starter at left guard.
It has been said that switching sides of the offensive line is like learning how to write with the hand you don't normally write with. In the simplest sense, everything that's critical to success (footwork, hand placement, etc.) is backwards when making the switch from one side to the other. Glasgow played some left guard during his first stint with the Lions, but he hadn't done so very much in more recent years heading into this season.
Glasgow fell to the 55th-best overall grade among guards from PFF during the regular season this season. With the benchmark of a 60.0 grade being considered a below-average performance, he cleared a 55.1 overall PFF grade just twice over the final seven games of the season (counting the playoffs). The playoff loss to the Commanders was the low-point, with an inexplicably bad 10.2 pass blocking grade as he allowed nine pressures.
On the chart below, meshing pressure rate allowed and blown block rate for interior offensive lineman this season, you'll see Glasgow at the bottom left-the quadrant you don't want to be in.
Interior lineman pass pro during true pass sets (centers in red & guards in blue)
— Stat Acccount (@AcccountStat) January 19, 2025
x = Pressure % Allowed
y = Blown Block %
Up = good | Right = good pic.twitter.com/hGYb6G92G4
Glasgow did miss a game (Week 16) due to a knee injury. But otherwise there were no other clear-cut injury limitations for him this season, and frankly his 2023 campaign looks like an outlier compared to what he has done in recent seasons.
The easy expectation heading into the season was for Glasgow to make a seamless move to left guard. But the move is not that easy to do, and Glasgow struggled a lot. At minimum, with Zeitler being a free agent adding a layer to things, the Lions are now likely tasked with adding competition for Glasgow this offseason.