March 27, 2026, 6:55 p.m. ET<\/p>\n
The Detroit Lions<\/a> added more offensive line help with its latest NFL free agency signing<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Lions inked former 49ers<\/a> offensive lineman Ben Bartch. The 6-foot-6, 315-pound lineman was the 49ers’ season-opening starter at left guard in 2025, but a high ankle sprain in Week 2 sent Bartch to the injured reserve and cost him seven weeks.<\/p>\n When Bartch returned in Week 10, he split time with Spencer Burford at left guard. Bartch would sustain a season-ending foot injury that required surgery<\/a>.<\/p>\n When healthy, Bartch’s performance was good. Per Pro Football Focus<\/a>, Bartch’s 71.7 offensive grade was tops among its offensive guards.<\/p>\n But, while Bartch has played in 55 NFL regular-season games and started 24, injuries limited him to just the six games and two starts last year.<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n In his three seasons in San Francisco (2023-25), Bartch played in 14 games and started four. The bulk of Bartch’s seat time came with his first team.<\/p>\n Bartch was originally drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a> with the 116th overall pick in the fourth round of the 2020 NFL draft. The Division III product out of St. John’s (Minn.) played in 41 regular-season games and started 20 with the Jaguars from 2020-23.<\/p>\n Bartch joins a group of Lions guards that includes Christian Mahogany, Tate Ratledge, and Juice Scruggs<\/a>, who the Lions acquired in the David Montgomery trade<\/a>.<\/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":"March 27, 2026, 6:55 p.m. ET The Detroit Lions added more offensive line help with its latest NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":837924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2071],"tags":[95878,146,113,2506,7,147,6,52959,96502,95882,102119,111183,95896,95888,95899,102121,95883,95881],"class_list":["post-837923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-lions","tag-accessfree","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-lions","tag-detroitlions","tag-football","tag-lions","tag-nfl","tag-sstssportsnfllions","tag-sstsnlions","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagben-bartch","tag-tagjuice-scruggs","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagspencer-burford","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116303761843450466","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837923","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=837923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}