Among Detroit Lions' offensive lineman who had a retirement question around them entering the offseason, Dan Skipper was not the headliner. But he also made his decision to call it a career fairly quickly, then he coached the offensive line at the East-West Shrine Bowl and he has now moved into a role on the Lions' coaching staff.
Skipper's official title on Dan Campbell's staff is Offensive Assistant. But his area of experience and expertise is obviously offensive line, so it's fair to assume his primary duties will be working closely with offensive line coach Hank Fraley.
It can be hard to find a lot of quantifiable, unquestionable numbers on how much the performance of the Lions' offensive line dropped off last season. But Matt Okada of NFL.com, citing NFL Pro/Next Gen Stats, found a pretty stark one while noting the offensive line as the team's top priority to fix this offseason.
"Detroit’s -81.1 sack EPA in 2025 was their worst as a team since 2017."
Dan Skipper has a clear vision for fixing the Lions' offensive line
On the latest episode of "Twentyman in the Huddle", Tim Twentyman of Lions.com talked to Skipper about his move into coaching.
In light of the offensive line's fall from it's previous dominance last season, with a number of factors fueling that drop-off, Twentyman asked Skipper what is needed for the unit to get back to an elite level.
"I think it starts with, you know, attitude", Skipper said. "You gotta have guys that want to be the best, want to play hard, want to do those things right. Obviously there's a level of skill involved, that you gotta have. Then..the knowledge base...you can't play fast if you're thinking."
"How can we make sure that these guys know exactly what they're supposed to do, but not have to be lost in thought on the field...?"
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At times last season, along the line of what Skipper said about not being able to "play fast if you're thinking" it appeared the Lions' offensive lineman weren't on the same page. That left unblocked defenders to short-circuit run plays, or put quick heat on Jared Goff.
Apart from any changes or upgrades that are coming this offseason, the fixes Skipper talked are cut-and-dry and almost feel too simple.
Skipper brings the unique perspective of having just been in uniform with some of the Lions' offensive lineman who will be around next season. Maybe he knows where there were gaps between coaching during the week and execution on game days. Bridging that gap could automatically land highly on the list of priorities in his new role, and he sounds ready for it.