Feb. 28, 2026, 11:45 p.m. ET<\/p>\n
The Detroit Lions<\/a>‘ 2025 season was hampered by injuries and officially submarined with a late-season three-game losing streak.<\/p>\n Regression along its offensive line was one of the common denominators for the Lions<\/a>‘ 9-8 finish. Detroit never found the proper answer at center after Frank Ragnow’s abrupt retirement<\/a> in June of last year.<\/p>\n It sets the Lions up with an offseason where Detroit is likely looking to find its next long-term answer at center either in free agency or via the 2026 NFL draft.<\/p>\n As the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine nears its conclusion, reports this week have linked the Lions to a trio of centers. Per Crunch Time Sports, the Lions held informal meetings with Auburn center Connor Lew<\/a>, Florida center Jake Slaughter<\/a> and Indiana center Pat Coogan<\/a>.<\/p>\n Veteran Graham Glasgow was the Lions’ starting center a season ago, but Glasgow is entering his age 34 season and the final year of his deal. One way or another, the 6-foot-6, 315-pound offensive lineman is nearing the end of his time in the Motor City.<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n Other center options in the 2026 NFL draft include Kansas State’s Sam Hecht, Texas A&M’s Trey Zuhn III, Iowa’s Logan Jones, Duke’s Brian Parker II and Alabama’s Parker Brailsford.<\/p>\n The Lions also haven’t ruled out the idea of Tate Ratledge as an option at center. Ratledge was Detroit’s starting right guard for all 17 games in 2025.<\/p>\n “There’s still promise for Tate to move into that position,” Lions general manager Brad Holmes said this week. “I think that’s the beauty of it. That’s flexibility that we have.”<\/p>\n For more\u00a0Lions<\/a>\u00a0coverage, follow us on X,\u00a0@TheLionsWire<\/a>, and give our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0page a like.\u00a0Follow Josh on X,\u00a0@JoshOnLions<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 28, 2026, 11:45 p.m. ET The Detroit Lions‘ 2025 season was hampered by injuries and officially submarined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[95878,146,113,2506,7,147,5264,6,52959,96502,95882,96512,96242,95893,96690,100432,95896,95888,95895,96684,95899,96099,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-783904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-lions","11":"tag-detroitlions","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-lions","14":"tag-mi","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-sstssportsnfllions","17":"tag-sstsnlions","18":"tag-tagamerican-football","19":"tag-tagdetroit","20":"tag-tagdetroit-lions","21":"tag-tagfacebook","22":"tag-tagfrank-ragnow","23":"tag-taggraham-glasgow","24":"tag-tagnational-sports","25":"tag-tagnfl","26":"tag-tagnfl-hub","27":"tag-tagnfl-scouting-combine","28":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","29":"tag-tagsec-conference-football","30":"tag-tagsports-news","31":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116152766766544154","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}