What a difference a year makes!
Last season, the Detroit Lions' offensive line struggled to find their footing in the wake of center Frank Ragnow's retirement. The once-proud O-line that helped carry the team to an NFC Championship game and, a season later, a 15-2 record and a No. 1 seed now found itself in the bottom half of most O-line metrics.
Not even tackle Penei Sewell having yet another First-Team All-Pro season could save an O-line that was starting two guards who were getting their first NFL starting experience, a center whose natural position is guard, and a Pro Bowl left tackle who fought hard through nagging injuries to see the field in the 14 games he was able to play.
The end result was quarterback Jared Goff being sacked a career-high 38 times, with five games of being sacked four or more times. In Goff's previous four seasons in Detroit, that had only happened nine times.
General manager Brad Holmes locked in this offseason with the top goal of never letting that happen again. The Lions signed center Cade Mays, one of the top centers on the market. They released Decker, moving Sewell over to left tackle. At right tackle, they drafted Blake Miller out of Clemson in the first round. The Lions also traded running back David Montgomery to the Houston Texans for, among draft picks, guard Juice Scruggs to compete for Christian Mahogany's left guard spot.
If these moves resulted in even an average O-line again, that would've been huge for Goff and RB Jahmyr Gibbs, who spent the better part of 2025 fighting for their lives to keep the offense moving.
Instead, this O-line has gone above and beyond average.
PFF ranks the Lions O-Line #1 entering Week 6
In their O-line rankings entering Week 6, Pro Football Focus has the Lions' O-line ranked number one. One! The league's best O-line!
"The Lions move into the top spot having been named our Offensive Line of the Week from each of the past two weeks. Penei Sewell has earned a PFF grade above 90.0 in two of the past three games after a slow start having switched to left tackle, but the biggest story is how quickly right tackle Blake Miller has looked comfortable in the NFL. He has yet to allow a sack in the first four games of his NFL career, and has given up just nine pressures from 166 pass-blocking snaps."PFF's Gordon McGuinness
There hasn't been a true weak link on this starting O-line so far this season. The lowest-graded member of the O-line so far has been Miller, whose 67.1 grade ranks him 33rd among tackles. But even that puts him near the top half of all starting tackles. Not to mention his pass-blocking grade (79.1) puts him tenth at the position. Tackle is one of the most difficult positions for a rookie to adjust to in the NFL, and Miller is making it look easy.
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Sewell (90.9) and Scruggs (75.6) both lead their positions in overall grades, and Scruggs isn't even playing the position he was traded to play. Scruggs is leading all centers while Mays is recovering from a broken wrist. With Mays expected to return after the bye, Scruggs should move back to LG right? Maybe not, as Mahogany (86.4 overall grade) ranks third among guards, with grades of 80+ in both pass-blocking (81.6) and run-blocking (82.2).
Right guard Tate Ratledge (75.5 overall grade) has looked great in his own right, with the seventh-best pass-blocking grade (78.2) among guards. Scruggs might not even find a home there, either. Ratledge has only given up two sacks in his career and none so far in 2026.
The long road ahead for the Lions' O-line
The Lions have an O-line so good that arguably the best center in 2026 might get pushed out of a starting job a third of the way through the season simply because there isn't room. Maybe the Lions pursue a sell-high trade opportunity for Scruggs, but if they don't, he's the perfect insurance in case Mays struggles out of the gate or the injury bug hits. Good O-line depth is almost impossible to come by.
But to address the elephant in the room, yes, PFF doesn't always agree with the eye test, nor is it a be-all-end-all. 11 sacks through five weeks is, ironically, more than the eight the O-line gave up at this point last season. The O-line also needs time to get going every game. Seven of those 11 sacks given up have occurred in the first quarter, which can at least partially explain the offense's slow starts.
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There's plenty of football ahead, and wear and tear can impact O-line play more than any position, but as of right now, Holmes mission to rebuild the O-line has been a roaring success. Goff and Gibbs are playing at an MVP level, as the offense is scoring at a franchise-best pace.
And all it took was one offseason to turn things around.
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