Exhale, Lions fans. Your Detroit Lions have agreed to a deal for a new center!
The Lions have reportedly signed Cade Mays to a three-year, $25 million deal, with $14 million guaranteed, per NFL insider Aaron Wilson.
Mays may not be a Tyler Linderbaum quality center, but he is significantly cheaper than the $27 million a year deal Linderbaum reportedly received from the Las Vegas Raiders. Mays was still considered among the top centers available in free agency, with a mounting list of teams in need of one.
Perhaps the most important part of this signing is who will not be starting at center next season.
Since his first training camp, speculation surrounded where 2025 draft pick Tate Ratledge would end up. He may have been drafted as a guard, but both general manager Brad Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell talked of a potential future at center. The musings persisted even as recently as the NFL Combine.
Ratledge never played center in college, but had a solid rookie season at right guard, making Pro Football Focus' 2025 Rookie Team of the Year. Ratledge may one day excel at center, but with the multitude of OL issues the Lions have, it would've been an extremely risky gambit to shift him to center for next season.
The Lions needed experience at the position, rather than potentially wasting a season on such a gamble. What the Mays signing does is keep Ratledge at RG, allowing him to grow at a consistent position heading into year two.
Mays is also an upgrade from Glasgow
Mays is not an elite center like Frank Ragnow was, nor is he a perennial Pro Bowler like Linderbaum. At the bare minimum, he's an upgrade from Graham Glasgow, who was released by the Lions prior to free agency.
Per PFF, Mays in 2025 graded out better than Glasgow overall (62.4 to 56.8), in pass blocking (69.4 to 61.3), and in run blocking (58.4 to 54.3). That jump may not seem like much, but looking deeper at his numbers, the upgrade becomes more apparent.
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Mays allowed fewer hits than Glasgow (3 to 8) as well as fewer pressures (11 to 18), per PFF's tally. We all know how important it is for quarterback Jared Goff not to be pressured. Not only that, Mays did not allow a single sack, compared to Glasgow's one sack. In fact, Mays has not allowed a sack since the 2023 season.
Of the Lions' many issues heading into the offseason, center topped the list. With Mays, the Lions get a much-needed upgrade at an affordable price, whilst keeping Ratledge at RG. There's more for the Lions to do, but the OL is already shaping up to look better than last season. That's worthy of a sigh of relief.