The Detroit Lions competition at center is starting to shake out...

Mike Payton discusses how the open competition at center for the Detroit Lions is taking shape!

Transcript

00:00The first day of Detroit Lions training camp is in the books and the answers at center seem a

00:04little bit more clear. Let's talk about it. Hi, this is Mike Payton from A to Z Sports Detroit.

00:10Today we're going to talk about how the answers at center seem a little bit more clear after the

00:14first day of training camp for the Detroit Lions. First off, let me just say this. This was day one.

00:19There were no pads. These were not live reps. This is just the way things look at the beginning.

00:25And the way things look at the beginning is that Tate Ratlidge, the Lions second round pick,

00:30is leading the charge in the center competition. He took most of the team's first team reps

00:35at center today. He did slide over to guard for Graham Glasgow to take over some center reps,

00:41but this was mostly Tate Ratlidge's day. And I think that he looked pretty good from what we saw.

00:47He seemed to snap the ball well. He seemed to read the defense well. He seemed to understand

00:51what he was supposed to do at that position, even though he hasn't really played guard,

00:54didn't really do it at Georgia, didn't actually do it at all at Georgia. So this is something that

00:59he seems to be taking too nicely. We'll see as things progress, as the pad goes on next week,

01:05as live reps start to happen next week, we'll see how he reacts during that time. But so far,

01:10it looks pretty good. Other guys that were taking snaps at center were Kingsley Ekaquan. He was with

01:15the second team, Hendon Hooker and Kyle Allen all day, as well as Michael Neese came in for some of

01:20those snaps as well. They worked him out at center last year, so they could be potentially looking to

01:25do that again this year, see how he does in the preseason. Perhaps he could be that practice

01:30squat center. Ekaquan is another guy that I think has a big chance to potentially maybe get some first

01:36team reps as the summer continues. We'll see where things go there. But as for now, it looks like this

01:42is Tate Ratlidge's job to lose. We'll see where it goes. But I think he's going to get it. We'll see.