Lions' final center battle will come down to veterans overcoming one rookie

Tate Ratledge has suddenly been thrust into a competition to replace one of the Detroit Lions' best players on offense: Frank Ragnow. The former center retired this summer, leaving a glaring hole on the Lions' IOL. It has been a strength for the Lions and the teams' run game to have a center like Ragnow anchoring everything and anything, and now they've taken a step back in an area that should've been a sure-thing in 2025.

That's led to some serious competition brewing between a few of the Lions' options at center. As of now, those options are veterans in Graham Glasgow and recent signee Trystan Colon, and rookie Tate Ratledge. Ratledge was taken as a guard in this year's draft, but has been getting reps at center in minicamp moreso than the other veterans that can play the position, as well.

Ratledge has suddenly become these veterans' one roadblock to actually winning the job, one that's become pretty enshrined in its importance since Ragnow's retirement. While he'd gotten reps there while at Georgia, Glasgow and even Colon should likely be getting preference given their experience in the league and past experience playing center in the NFL.

Veterans need to beat out Ratledge to win center positional battle

Glasgow typically plays as a guard, and according to PFF, he graded at 57.9 at that position in 2024. Additionally, he had a snap count of 1,080 last season, which shows that he's durable at a pretty physical position. At 32 years old, it's hard to see how he can maintain that reliability, but it's a good sign that he's able to maintain that playing time as recently as last year.

As for Colon, he graded out a lot more highly at guard than Glasgow, which might hurt his chances at center. He's obviously a lot more valuable at guard, with a 68.5 run blocking grade in 2024. Another knock: he only took 386 snaps at guard in 2024 compared to Glasgow's 1,080, so his health may be of concern as a center option on the roster.

Ratledge has a slight disadvantage because of his inexperience. We've yet to see how he plays at the position in real NFL action. But, based on the fact that he's been earning the most reps at the position, it sounds like the Lions are okay with experimenting with both him and Glasgow at center while both can also shift to guard.