The Detroit Lions walked out of New Orleans with a win last Sunday, but they also walked out banged up in two very important areas. Alim McNeill was placed on injured reserve on Tuesday and while Frank Ragnow wasn’t, the likelihood is that he will miss Sunday’s game against the Bears at least. So what does the team do with their offensive line?
The standard protocol has been to shift right guard Graham Glasgow over to center and then put either Kayode Awosika or rookie Colby Sorsdal in that spot. That has been a serious problem for the Lions.
Sorsdal has played guard for the Lions four times this season and in in that span, he’s allowed eight hurries, 12 pressures, three quarterback hits and a sack. That is very bad. He also hasn’t graded out higher than 48.9 in any of those games.
I’m not calling Sorsdal a bust and you probably shouldn’t either. It is not easy to be a tackle in college and then come in and play guard in the NFL. There’s a lot of mechanics to learn and get better at. I think he will at some point. It’s just not right now.
As for Awosika, he’s been better at guard, but all his action has come on the left side of the line. He had a very good showing against the Raiders, but when the Lions benched Sorsdal midway through the Packers game and put in Awosika, he maybe the worst game of his career. He allowed six hurries and seven pressures in just that game.
So what do the Lions do? The answer is pretty easy actually because the guy you want for this moment is already in the building. Michael Schofield is currently on the practice squad and he would be perfect for this situation.
The former third round pick has been in the league since 2014 and while he’s bounced around a bit, he’s started every place that he’s been. Scofield has 86 career starts in 113 games and most of them came at right guard.
He was pretty good there too. Never a Pro Bowl level guy, but a guy that’s going to consistently grade out in the 60’s and is a phenomenal pass blocker. He’s finished the season with a pass block grade of better than 70 five times in his career. That includes last year and 2021.
He was with the Bears last season and he played 11 games and started five of them. He allowed seven hurries, eight pressures and a sack in those 11 games. He finished the year with a 66.9 total grade and a 75 pass blocking grade.
Schofield has been with the Lions since Week 11. He was elevated for the Thanksgiving game, but he never actually took the field for that game. Now is the time for him to make his Lions debut against his former team. He’s their best chance to sustain their offensive line with Ragnow out. We’ll see what they decide to do on Saturday when the team is expected to make their elevations for the week.