The Best O Line in the NFL Detroit Lions Offensive line Breakdown

Intro hello and welcome to the JSA Studio I'm your host as always Nathan and today I'm coming at you with another Detroit Lions video today we're going to be talking about the offensive line going position by position as well as talking about the depth and who ultimately I believe will make the roster and now with the intro done and out of the way there's only one thing left to say and that's to ask you to like comment and subscribe so we're Penei Sewell going to start off this video by talking about the offensive tackles uh specifically pan Su and then we're going to get into Taylor Decker next for my money pan Su is in fact the best right tackle in the NFL and a top five offensive lineman regardless of position this offseason he signed a 4year $112 million contract extension making him I believe uh at the time the highest paid offensive tackle in the NFL I believe trist wors has surpassed him since then either way he was completely worth the money uh his contract unlike Jared gofs is actually uh a little bit more Team friendly hypothetically they would be able to add a void gear onto the end of it to spread out the cap hit a little bit more if they wanted to they could also restructure it and clear money that way either way this is someone who I believe is going to be a perennial pro bowler and perennial All Pro candidate uh this is one of the best players in the NFL actually in the NFL top 100 I think he was ranked 22nd or 23rd somewhere around there and I think he is underrated I believe you could make an argument that he is a top 10 player in the NFL regardless of position and to be entirely honest with you with Jason Kelce out of the league now he has retired I think there's a definitive possibility he's the best offensive lineman in the NFL and in fact according to Football Focus that is the case he finished with a 92.8 rating which was the highest of any qualified offensive lineman regardless of positions that includes guards and centers also we'll get to him a little bit later but Frank ragna was pff's number one Center this past season as well all in all as a first pick for Brad Holmes as a culture defining player panul is that guy uh I think he is well on his way to being a Hall of Fame caliber offensive lineman and with Taylor Decker signing his own contract extension this year I believe there's a definitive possibility he may go down as the greatest right tackle in the history of the NFL Taylor Decker is Taylor Decker our starting left tackle and he has been someone that has played at either a flat out and straight up Pro Bowl C caliber level or a borderline Pro Bowl caliber level for the majority of his career he has dealt with injuries at times however he is someone that is just flat out and straight up one of the most underrated players in the NFL he is ridiculously good uh he signed his own contract extension this year three years $60 million $20 million a year which is seventh in terms of highest r ranking for uh left tackles in the NFL even though in my opinion he did take a step back this year from earlier points in his career as he is getting older he is 31 and because of that it would not Shock me if there was a little bit in a decline of play especially considering that his game was not particularly defined as something that you would say is athleticism based but it's more so power and length based which you would think would mean that he would have more longevity however with offensive linemen that's actually just not the case typically the players that last the longest along the offense of line are the most athletic case and point Trent Williams clayon Point Lane Johnson case and point Jason Kelce and I can give you a multitude of other examples in terms of the most athletic offensive lineman being the ones that end up lasting the longest whereas the guys that win with technique and power as opposed to having that great athleticism generally start to fade out once they get out of their early 30s so when you look at Taylor deer's contract it's actually remarkably Team friendly they can effectively get out of it for basically no real penalty after 2025 now I don't think necessarily they're going to want to move bond from him after 2025 again it depends upon how much the play falls off as he gets older if it falls off at all maybe it doesn't maybe he's one of the rare guys that can be an exception to a general rule so to speak pfff did in fact actually have Taylor Decker ranked as the eighth best offensive tackle in the NFL this past season um and PFF is generally correct however I don't know how they came to that conclusion given that he did in fact give up or is least credited with giving up eight sacks I don't know if he actually gave up eight saxs or not those statistics often come with a shocking amount of nuance in terms of who they credit saxs to however I do remember him getting beat relatively consistently especially when lined up against Micah Parsons and the Dallas Cowboys however Micah Parsons is the the kind of player that generally speaking nobody can really stop him so that's not the worst thing in the world moving on to the The Guards guards we have Graham Glascow and Kevin zeitler who is replacing Jonah Jackson who I was tremendously sad to see walk away however it's not the end of the world given that we did in fact get Kevin zeitler to replace him I do believe that Jonah Jackson will be missed a little bit not so much as if we had to replace Jonah Jackson with anyone other than Kevin zitler however I don't think Kevin zitler is an upgrade over Jonah Jackson especially when you factor age into the conversation I think they're practically the same player just inverted so what do I mean by that what I mean is Jonah Jackson is an elite run blocker and kind of a average to honestly below average Aver pass blocker Kevin zeitler is a below average to average run blocker and an Elite pass blocker for the position you also enter the fact that Graham Glasgow is not particularly that good of a run blocker as well I think he's better than Kevin zitler but Jonah Jackson was putting in work in the Run game he now he was at times very bad in the passing game which is not going to be a problem with Kevin zitler however I do think the off offensive line didn't get worse I just think it got maybe slightly worse at run blocking and slightly better at pass blocking and then it's the same level of offensive line it's just slightly different than it was last year however Kevin zitler is in fact a stop Gap and likely will not be on this team next year as far as Graham Glascow goes he is also kind of a stop Gap like he's an older player he played tremendously well this past season I thought he played like a probable caliber guard this past year and he was ranked eighth on the PFF rankings Uh Kevin ziter was ranked 15th and Jonah Jackson was like 34th or something like that which I just fundamentally disagree with that assessment from PFF so according to PFF this was a massive upgrade a Kevin zitler is old as hell and at some point there's going to be a fallof is it going to be this year is it going to be next year is it just not going to happen and he's going to retire I don't know Uh Kevin zitler is a phenomenal football player and has been for almost a decade at this point he did kind of struggle early on in his career from what I'm surmising I think he came into the league in 2012 uh but he's been a very very good football player for a very long time and I don't necessarily see him completely falling off the map however this is someone that was kind of a stop Gap when they lost out on Jonah Jackson again you could certainly do worse than Kevin sitler all that being said to be entirely honest with you if they ended up just drafting Christian mahogany in the fifth or sixth round whenever they drafted him I don't remember and they just ended up starting him then I would have been completely fine with that because I had a top 75 grade on Christian mahogany loved him coming out of Boston College I thought he was plug-and-play starter in the NFL and the NFL disagreed with me which is not the first time they've done that I've been right sometimes they've been right sometimes well they've been right more often than I've been right which is why they're in the NFL and I'm sitting here just telling you what I think last Frank Ragnow player on the starting offensive line here is the best center in the NFL Frank ragnell and he is the best center in the NFL I think right now I think you can make an argument for creed Humphrey and I kind of go back and forth on who I honestly think is better but I'm I'm going to be a little bit of a homer right now with the Lions uh I think Frank ragnow is the best center in the NFL I think he got snubbed from First Team all proo this past season and I think he is absolutely going to be somebody that needs to be considered a first team all proo heading into this season again barring injury which he has dealt with injuries in his career and I hope that he doesn't have to deal with them this year because I want the Lions to go and win the Super Bowl like their roster is constructed to do so I want Frank ragnow to be healthy all in all he has a tremendous mix of power agility and the ability to work to the second level of the defense and potentially even beyond that when you watch him he moves people off the offensive line he is a tremendous football player who is well on his way to being talked about as an all-time great at the position moving Back Ups along to the depth along the offensive line these are the players that I believe would be the backups at each position so to speak right now the backup at left tackle would most likely be Giovani Manu uh the backup at left guard or one of the Guard positions would probably be kyote Aika uh the other backup for the guard position would be Christian mahogany Dan Skipper is very likely to continue in his role as that six offensive lineman that they bring in for you know five six snaps a game and I also believe he's very likely to be the true sort of backup at the right tackle position Kobe sores doll I think is a depth piece I do believe he also has a little bit of flexibility from tackle to guard I believe he played tackle in college but the general consensus was that he was going to come out and be a guard at the next level uh Michael N is the backup center now he's not really the backup center if Frank ragnow were to get hurt Graham Glascow the man pictured on the screen right now would actually slide over to Center and I think they would bring in one of kyote Aika or Christian mahogany to come in and play the left guard position there is in all honesty not a whole lot of depth here uh I don't particular l l feel great about anybody coming off the bench here uh I think Giovani Manu and Christian mahogany are both players that are going to be starting caliber offensive lineman in the NFL at some point during their career I mean giovan Manu is just a specimen of a human being a fantastic athlete for the position someone that could potentially end up being the replacement for Taylor Decker once we get to towards the tail end of that Taylor Decker contract and they can cut it and save like $12 million uh that is something that I could see happening um Christian mahogany I think flat out and straight up will likely be the starter at one of the Guard positions next year this year uh I do think he will be able to come off the bench and be a guard but I don't know how much the coaching staff is going to want him to do that which is why I said it'll either be him or kyote Aika who is a little bit more veteran in the Le League to end up being the first guy off the bench along the interior when it comes to the actual Depth Chart dep chart everybody knows what the starting five is going to be Taylor Decker at left tackle Graham Glasgow at left guard Frank ragnow at the center position Kevin zitler at Right Guard and Pan suul the allpro at right tackle the backups however would be a little bit more interesting I guess but this is probably how it shakes out you Giovani Manu kot Aika Graham Glasgow as the backup center mahogany and Skipper with sores doll being the ninth offensive lineman kept on the team I do think someone like Michael NES or perhaps someone else might be a candidate for the practice squad to get elevated if the case that Graham Glascow or Frank ragnow ends up getting hurt and is out for a couple weeks or God forbid the whole season but I think it's unlik that he makes the roster outright I think these nine players are likely to be just the players that make the roster soral is the one that I would put on the bubble so to speak with someone like Michael N so I don't know though uh but that's how I see the position playing out I think they're going to keep nine offensive linemen with maybe another one or two on the practice squad but that's 15:24 Outro just me and what do I know I'm just some on the internet giving you his opinion so this point I'd like to remind you to like the video if you liked it subscribe if you want to see more content like this and if you disagree with me at any point or you just have something to say go ahead and drop a comat down in the comment section below and now with the outro done and out of the way there's only one thing left to say and that's that I'll see you next time