A long list of injuries for the Detroit Lions coming out of Week 3 had something added to it on Monday with a report center Frank Ragnow suffered a partially torn pectoral in the game. On Thursday, head coach Dan Campbell ruled Ragnow out for Week 4 against the Seattle Seahawks.
In terms of replacing Ragnow, though not yet confirmed, the Lions are most likely to move Graham Glasgow over from left guard. Glasgow moved over to center to start the two games Ragnow missed last season (Week 8 and Week 14), putting the value of his versatility on display in his first year back with the team that drafted him.
Over his prior five seasons with the Lions, Glasgow played one position start to finish one time. Now all but set to make it five of six seasons in Detroit playing at least two positions, he had a joke about it.
"They don't like me getting comfortable," Glasgow said, via Richard Silva of the Detroit News.
Glasgow more seriously talked about his looming move to center for at least one game. Physically, he called center "a little bit less work than guard". But there is a difference from the mental side, with making line calls, identifying the MIKE linebacker, etc.
"You're looking at the plays a lot more," Glasgow said of the in-week preparation required to play center. "You're doing stuff like that. I feel like at guard, you end up usually looking at your matchup more than you're really looking at general scheme or stuff like that."
Graham Glasgow in line to fill-in for Frank Ragnow, as expected
During his session with the media on Thursday, Jared Goff seemingly let the cat out of the bag to confirm Glasgow is moving over to fill-in for Ragnow.
"Yeah, he’s the Swiss army knife,” Goff said. “He can kind of do it all. He’s played right guard, he’s played left guard this year, and now he’s playing center and it’s a luxury for us to have him, for sure.”
Full confirmation of Glasgow's move over to fill-in for Ragnow may not come until Monday night, when reporters observe pregame warmups. But the sentiment from himself and Goff in the locker room on Thursday has confirmed it's happening, as immediately expected when the unexpected news of Ragnow's injury came.