Rushing yards are one way to measure it. Sacks allowed work, too.
But when Detroit Lions offensive line coach Hank Fraley checks to see how his group compares to some of the best lines in the NFL, he will be evaluating from an entirely different point of view.
“I got to go, ‘Man, that was a mean group,’” Fraley explained Monday. “They’re going to go all day. It doesn’t matter what the score is, we can be down 40 or we can be up 40, we’re finishing. Have that mentality you’re going to put somebody’s face in the mud and just keep it there and step on it. So why not? Why not be that guy? So be the bully on the field, man. Be that bully.”
The Lions have the pedigree on their offensive line to be one of the biggest bullies in the NFL.
Taylor Decker and Penei Sewell form one of the league’s best tackle tandems. Frank Ragnow looks back to his pre-injury form after missing most of last season with toe surgery. Guards Jonah Jackson and Hal Vaitai, the former coming off a Pro Bowl appearance, are bulldozers inside.
And if last week’s preseason win over the Indianapolis Colts is any indication, the Lions have enviable depth in their backup group.
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“It’s really, when you walk off the field, what are others saying?” Fraley said. “’They were physical.’ ‘We were in a fight.’ ‘We might not have won the game, but we won up front.’ There’s stuff like that. Without being selfish it’s like, the team preparing for us (should say), ‘Hey, we better watch these guys cause they’re going to toe the line, they’re going to walk the line but stay professional about it.’ Not being anything dirty, but how do you walk that line being physical, nasty?
“And so when I think about lines like that, that are talked about and you hear other defenses that say, ‘Man, you better watch out or you’re going to get hit downfield, 20 yards downfield.’ ‘There’s going to be linemen around the pile.’ So I would love to hear that. Like that’s the type of chatter, but you’ve got to go out and do that.”
For all their talent up front — the Lions are one of seven NFL teams with three first-round picks (Decker, Sewell and Ragnow) projected to start on their offensive line this fall — the Lions did not dominate in the trenches in 2021.
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They finished 19th in the NFL in rushing and 12th in sack percentage allowed, but Decker missed the first eight games of the season with a fractured finger and by the time he returned Ragnow was out for the year with his foot injury.
The Lions started seven different combinations on their offensive line last season and did not have their starting unit together for a single snap.
Every starter missed at least one game, and while that made for some tough sledding in the NFC North, it also made the unit better and deeper for 2022.
Evan Brown started 12 games at center in Ragnow’s absence and played well enough that it surprised many when he re-signed with the Lions in March rather than test restricted free agency. Matt Nelson made 11 starts, most of them at right tackle while Sewell flipped sides to fill in for the injured Decker. And Tommy Kraemer played both guard spots as an undrafted rookie.
Those three, plus holdovers Logan Stenberg (who missed most of last season with a knee injury) and Dan Skipper led a dominant performance last week against the Colts, when the Lions ran for 174 yards, including 96 on their first two drives, in a 27-26 victory.
“That is one of the benefits of having some of the injuries we had is that Evan Brown gets a load, Nelson gets a load, Kraemer gets a load, and now you’re seeing those guys,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said, knocking on the wooden lectern in front of him so as not to jinx the unit’s health this fall. “They’re better players this year than they were last year because they have a lot of the experience under their belt, a lot more for sure. So, look, you’ve got to have depth in this league to survive so that’s pretty good.”
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Improved depth should make for tougher roster decisions when the Lions set their 53-man roster next week.
Most NFL teams carry nine linemen, and injuries at other positions could force the Lions to let one of Skipper, Stenberg and Kraemer go.
Decker said watching the second-team offensive line’s performance against the Colts was a reminder that “we have set a standard and everybody in that room has adhered to that standard” — a standard of being the biggest bully on the NFL’s offensive line block.
“If you’re not trying to have a presence on the field as an offensive lineman, you shouldn’t be out there,” Decker said. “That’s just the nature of the game. It’s physical up there up front. There’s a bunch of big, strong, fast, great athletes, so yeah. I’ve said it a million times, if you can establish the line of scrimmage on offense and defensively set the edge and stop the run, that just opens up the whole game plan offensively and defensively.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.