Pride of Detroit
We know a lot went wrong in the Detroit Lions’ in 2025. There are plenty of reasons they will not be playing football this weekend, while the top-14 teams in the league will still be fighting for a Super Bowl. The offensive line took a big step back, Detroit clearly made a regrettable hire at offensive coordinator, the defense went through a handful of key injuries and also just played inconsistently from week-to-week, and there were also significant coaching mistakes at key moments in their losses.
It’s easy to identify the problems. It’s harder to take those problems, learn from them, and come up with the correct solutions. So let’s take the second step in that process.
Today’s Question of the Day is:
My answer: Plan ahead.
It remains to be seen whether Frank Ragnow’s retirement caught the front office completely by surprise or not. It seems unlikely, as I would imagine Ragnow would have brought up the possibility of it during his exit interview following the 2024 season. If that’s the case, the Lions made a huge risk by not only failing to get a proven center, but compounding that gamble by letting Kevin Zeitler walk—or failing to replace him with a startable player if Zeitler wasn’t going to return. But why not be even more proactive than that?
Not many were clamoring for a center in the 2024 NFL Draft—and some would’ve been downright pissed with that selection given their desire for an “immediate impact” player—but it’s not hard to imagine how different the offensive line situation would have played out had they grabbed Graham Barton, Jackson Powers-Johnson, or Zach Frazier in the first round (or traded up in the second round to get Powers-Johnson or Frazier).
Admittedly, we all have the benefit of hindsight at the moment, but at the same time, I specifically advocated for the Lions to take Frazier that year, as both an eventual Zeitler replacement and potential long-term successor to Ragnow.
This front office has said plenty of times how important the offensive line is, yet they didn’t plan ahead for the possibility of losing Zeitler and Ragnow in a single offseason. Now they stand to possibly lose two more starters this offseason, meaning they will have to hit the position hard this offseason and hope each of those moves pays off immediately.
What lesson are you taking from the Lions’ 2025 season? Share your answer in the comment section at the bottom of the page.
