Lions sitting on a gold mine with breakout star ready to take over in 2025

If you've had panic attacks about the Lions' offensive line at any point this summer, this blog's for you. If you've sat around struggling to do all the necessary breathing exercises, I can't blame you – it's been an offseason to forget this year, as the Lions have watched, like, 45% of their core leave for any number of different reasons. Things are bleak(ish).

But there's good news on the digital horizon. Pro Football Focus put together a list of every team's breakout candidate in 2025, and they were nice enough to include the Lions. See, not everything's bad! It gets better: the Lions' candidate is an offensive lineman! Usually that'd be kinda boring, but at this point, I'll take any good news I can get.

The Lions' offensive line situation may not be as dire as everyone thinks it is

"After the Lions lost the aforementioned Zeitler to Tennessee, the team’s depth at guard took a hit. Nonetheless, Detroit can still be comfortable with the state of the position given how Mahogany performed as a rookie. The former sixth-round pick wowed in limited time in 2024, registering a 91.5 overall PFF grade on 144 snaps between left and right guard. Mahogany slotted in the 99th percentile in PFF pass-blocking grade on true pass sets as well as the 97th percentile in negatively graded run-blocking play rate, revealing his well-rounded abilities. Detroit will be without two members of its starting IOL from a year ago in light of Frank Ragnow’s retirement, and GM Brad Holmes seems to have made it clear that Mahogany and rookie Tate Ratledge will be in for sizable workloads. Based on offensive line coach Hank Fraley’s skill in cultivating stars, Mahogany could be next up in the Motor City."

I only kinda know what all those PFF numbers and grades mean, but 97th percentile sounds pretty good to me. Losing both starting interior lineman in one offseason is brutal, but if Mahogany and Ratledge both arrive as advertised, the legend of Dan Campbell (and Fraley) is only going to grow. The Lions need a breakout star in the worst way this season, and it'd be very Detroit for that to happen on the offensive line. I'm not saying that I'm putting my entire wellbeing on the possibility of a Mahogany breakout season, but actually, that's exactly what I'm saying.