With significant investments made, most notably three first-round picks out of five starters, the Detroit Lions had one of the best offensive lines in the NFL. During the 2025 season, starting with the retirement of center Frank Ragnow, that was not the case.
As it turns out, a succession plan for Ragnow never came to fruition. At the starting guard spots, with Graham Glasgow moving to center to replace Ragnow, the Lions had a rookie and a second-year player who was practically a rookie. The latter, left guard Christian Mahogany, missed six games with a broken leg and looked like he was not ready to be back when he returned to action in December.
At season's end, backing up comments from a year ago calling it a garden that needed to always be watered, general manager Brad Holmes made it clear it would be "urgent" to add to the offensive line this offseason. The potential retirement of left tackle Taylor Decker would add to that urgency in a big way.
Free agent prediction has Lions going all-out to fix core issue of 2025 season
In terms of offensive line starters that will carryover from last season to next season, pending what Decker decides to do, the Lions have two that are lead-pipe locks: right tackle Penei Sewell, and right guard Tate Ratledge. Ratledge got some work at center during OTAs last spring, so he is an option there if things take shape that way.
Greg Auman of Fox Sports has predicted the team that will sign each of his top-100 2026 free agents. As could be expected, he had the Lions as the landing spot for one of the top available offensive lineman.
Guard David Edwards.
"Edwards, 28, has been a bargain for the Bills the last two years, starting at guard while making $6 million for two years. He'll cost significantly more as a free agent, with some projections close to $20 million a year. Does Buffalo promoting Joe Brady to head coach make them more likely to want to keep their offensive line intact? It'll be expensive to keep them all, so it's possible they'll re-sign one of their two free-agent starters and use the draft to replace the other."
The projection Auman referred to for Edwards is Spotrac's, $19.9 million per year on a projected three-year free agent deal. Pro Football Focus' current projection comes in noticeably lower, $11.67 million per-year on a three-year deal.
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If not for resting in Week 18 twice, Edwards would've started every game for the Buffalo Bills at left guard over the last two seasons. Over the course of his career, 69 of his 77 regular season starts have come at left guard.
If the Lions signed Edwards, as should now be obvious, he would supplant Mahogany as the starter at left guard for the next....two or three years? Mahogany's rookie contract has two years left on it, so the move to replace him with a veteran would be a tough look for him.
But business is business, and the Lions have to figure what it'll take to bring their offensive line back to the dominance it once had.