Sportsnaut
Despite entering the season with championship expectations, the Detroit Lions failed to even reach the playoffs in 2025. Head coach Dan Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes know that can’t happen again.
Yet, the Lions have been faced with some unique challenges since last season ended. For one, starting left tackle Taylor Decker requested and was granted his release from the team in March. The Lions have since responded by drafting offensive tackle Blake Miller with the 17th overall pick in the first round.
Detroit will also have a new starting center after the team released Graham Glasgow back in March too. While Glasgow has not been signed elsewhere, the Lions shelled out a three-year, $25 million contract to free agent center Cade Mays, who now is expected to replace Glasgow in the starting lineup.
Mays entered the league as the 199th overall pick in the sixth round of the 2022 NFL Draft, yet Sports Illustrated‘s Albert Breer says the 27-year-old lineman is a “key under-the-radar guy for training camp.”
“Mark me down as having Lions center Cade Mays as a key under-the-radar guy for training camp. If the import from the Panthers delivers on his promise, and Detroit gets its line back closer to where it was pre-2025, then Dan Campbell has a very real contender again. And Ragnow was more important to make that whole group, which was at the center of the team’s DNA, go than most people realize.”
Mays had spent the entirety of his NFL career playing for the Carolina Panthers, where he started 27 of 52 games across the past four seasons. After starting 12 of his 14 appearances in Carolina last season, now Mays gets to continue his career as the starting center in Detroit.
While Mays is expected to be the starter, it should be noted that the Lions also traded David Montgomery, a fourth, and a seventh-round pick in exchange for center/guard Juice Scruggs, who could factor in along the offensive line in 2026, too.
Related: 10 NFL Teams That Could End Super Bowl Drought in February
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