- 18 hours ago
A day after the Cade Mays injury, do you feel better about the Detroit Lions situation?
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00:06so news broke yesterday right before the show started uh or as the show was starting that the
00:11lions were going to be without center cade mays for the next eight to ten weeks because of a
00:18severe wrist injury a serious wrist injury i believe was what dan campbell was talking about
00:22with it uh and that really kind of set everybody right into the doldrums mark and and and understandably
00:30so this was the guy that they went out and identified and targeted and free agency to
00:35replace uh graham glasgow let's get this uh this this run game going again let's solidify the
00:40passing game and the pass blocking and take a chance on a younger player uh who is just kind
00:47of getting into uh his starting shoes in the national football league has a lot of upside we're all very
00:52excited about it and then the news breaks that he's he's going to be out which brings about the
00:58obvious question what do the lions do now and lots of people are going to be looking at this with
01:05with doom and gloom uh there were varying opinions yesterday when this first broke and you know i i
01:09know that i think my initial reaction to it was oh this isn't good i know they have next man
01:15up
01:15mentality and all that but i mean there's some serious separation between the starter and who
01:20the backup is going to be that's just how things are uh and and then as the day was going
01:25on i was
01:25feeling a little bit better about it we did some research on uh seth mclaughlin who's um you know
01:31player that went undrafted in 2025 but the only reason he went undrafted is because he tore his achilles
01:37um in uh late in the season and uh when he was finishing up at ohio state in 2024 actually
01:44tore his
01:44achilles if he was right before the indiana game uh which was if you go back that was a massive
01:49game
01:50um but he had been a very well accomplished offensive lineman had started his career in
01:55alabama transferred to to uh to ohio state and and very well regarded and then he suffered the injury
02:03so went undrafted didn't latch on to a team until later in the year last year and came on with
02:09cincinnati and was uh part of the practice squad and now is signed as a free agent by the detroit
02:16lions and doesn't know too much about him i i i talked to somebody before the show and i was
02:23trying
02:24to get some kind of an expert opinion on what happens next for the detroit lions and the opinion
02:30i sought out was none other than john jansen why not why not ask an offensive lineman what he thinks
02:35about what's going to happen the offensive lineman the first thing i said to him was what do you know
02:38about seth mclaughlin and he had some nice things to say about him um and then he was telling me
02:44about john was telling me about his own uh issue with an achilles injury he had over the years he
02:48says it's different for an offensive lineman than it is for defensive back for instance it's just the
02:53movements and stuff but john said that he really didn't feel completely back until it was almost two
03:00years removed from the injury and that's kind of where mclaughlin is now and mclaughlin by his own
03:07account said yesterday after practices when he had a chance to talk to the media he's like yeah i
03:11didn't really feel myself towards until towards the end of last season when i started to feel good
03:17again uh with my health and how i'm dealing with the recovery from the injury so that's a positive that
03:23he's feeling much better now and he's further and further removed from this achilles injury
03:27he says he's better now than he's ever been jared goff said yesterday he was impressed with the
03:32command that he has the command that he plays with you know you look at the fact that he went
03:37undrafted and certainly part of that um was the achilles injury but part of that is they felt like
03:43he lacked some measurables but you know i was saying that i would always like to take a chance on
03:49a guy
03:49who has ohio state and alabama experience who won major awards in college because i know that guy
03:56knows how to play and i think he can overcome some of those measurables and then you consider the fact
04:03that this team finished 14th on the offensive line last year out of 32 teams according to pro football
04:09focus you lose taylor decker you lose graham glasgow is your expectation that they're better or worse
04:15than that 14th mark that they finished in last year my expectation is they're better well when they had
04:21cade mays i certainly thought they were going to be better and i thought that they upgraded
04:24certainly at left tackle no offense to taylor decker i think taylor decker had an amazing
04:27career with the detroit lions but penne sewell's arguably the best tackle in the game now going
04:33over to right tackle starting rookie or if you're going to start larry borm whoever earns that job
04:38that's going to be i mean the tackle is going to be overall a little fall off in talent i
04:42i think to
04:43start now years down the road hopefully it's a way different story but for right now i think you can
04:47say it's it's going to be you know a little bit down from the tackle standpoint but losing cade mays
04:53really does hurt and it kind of stunts the growth of where this team is going to be until i
04:58asked john
04:59about who should start you know is mclothin going to win his job or what and john thought well i
05:05think
05:06the guy really is going to be juice scruggs and juice scruggs who's missed the last few days of
05:10practice he's got a soft tissue uh situation he's dealing with but should be back soon it's nothing
05:16serious and and keep in mind this was this was a huge part of an offseason move when they moved
05:23on
05:23from david montgomery and got a draft pick and juice scruggs in return remember thinking about the
05:29well juice scruggs is actually decent offensive lineman he's got versatility he plays both guard and center
05:34adds really nice depth to this team and i think this is when it comes to position groups you want
05:40to have
05:40really good depth offensive line defensive line and in the secondary in particular and i think the lions
05:46are starting to develop some of this offensive line depth but what a difference a day makes
05:52because yesterday it didn't take long like a half an hour into practice right by 10 30 we have looked
05:58at the depth chart on espn.com and they had seth mclothin as the starting center of the detroit lions
06:0424 hours later i'm looking at the espn.com right now in their depth chart and they've got
06:09juice scruggs as the starting center for this team now no one's going to feel really good about this
06:14until you see them play in a game or maybe you'll feel better if you hear some glowing reports coming
06:20back from practice but like what you said jared goff had some nice things to say about mclaughlin and
06:25picking up the offense and commanding the offense uh from from the offensive line standpoint and making
06:30the right calls out there and mclaughlin to his own credit also called out the fact that he he had
06:36ups and downs he got beat by by players at certain times but he also did did well in in
06:41the past
06:42blocking drills but i guess my question is do you feel a little bit more at ease today now that
06:47we're
06:4724 hours later after the news of kate maize's injury do we feel better that the lions have enough
06:53depth and enough options of what they can do to absorb an injury to start the season especially yes
06:59when you consider the the the schedule when you consider when kate maize could return after the
07:05bye week that's only five games out especially when you consider the depth that this team now has at
07:11that position that they've lacked previously now we all looked at juice scruggs as like oh that's
07:17that's just uh you know some whipped cream on top of the sundae for the for this trade and and
07:22dan
07:23campbell would be the first to tell you brad holmes as well no no no this is why we chose
07:26the houston
07:27trade because we were getting juice scruggs because we were getting another key piece a guy that could
07:33step in this is exactly what this team has not had capable replacements capable you haven't really
07:40been able to say next man up here because there's been such a dramatic fall off well and unfortunately
07:46they have to say next man up to so many position groups over the last few years because the injuries
07:50have absolutely mounted with every team in the nfl but we're close to it here in detroit it feels like
07:56we've suffered more injuries than most uh when it comes to that but the the other thing that jansen
08:01said to me about it was that juice scruggs would be an upgrade over glam graham glasgow to begin with
08:06anyway wow and if i think back to when this trade happened this trade happened well before i thought
08:11it was before free agency began so you know at the time it was okay the lions we want them
08:17to target a
08:17center but they just got one in the trade is this kind of a fallback position in case they don't
08:22land
08:22one of the two or three big centers that were available in free agency well as it turns out
08:27they they got their big center in free agency in kate mays um so that relegates juice scruggs to
08:32competing for either a backup role or maybe a role at starting guard and now here we are with the
08:38injury it seems like this is actually it's it's not necessarily a soft landing spot i'm not going to
08:44go that far and say it's a soft landing spot for the lions but 24 hours later i feel better
08:50about
08:50the situation you threw it on the defcon scale of whatever it was one to five one being terrible
08:54five being fine you were at like a four i was at like a three to four and then i
08:58backed off you
08:59headed at two and i said i'm at like a three i think i'm still there at at defcon three
09:04but maybe
09:05now that number is is like the mountain climber the price is right and starting to creep up a little
09:10and you know i'm like a 3.4 you know i'm feeling a little bit better about this um but
09:17until i see
09:18until i see drew scruggs in practice moving defensive linemen around i'm still going to be a
09:24little hesitant the defcon scale is defcon one is the worst it's like uh grenades are imminent
09:29tornado is imminent that's a full panic meter i was at defcon two yesterday and i think i've moved
09:36defcon three i think i've moved down to okay yes this is a concern but the depth is better than
09:42it's ever been the schedule is lighter than it's ever been and you're hearing eight to ten weeks and
09:48we're all thinking dear dear god eight to ten games it's not eight to ten games it's five games
09:54against competition that you should be winning the majority of these anyway i will think it will
10:01become defcon one if the lions are sputting around and dropping games to the likes of the jets and the
10:07cardinals that's when that that elevates but just like we said the tigers were never in a better
10:12position to move off of tarik skuble given their rotation depth the lions have never been in a better
10:18position for this to happen given the depth that they've built and seth mclaughlin look at the
10:23opportunity for him gator i mean he this is a guy that may have been a long shot to make
10:27the team
10:28now i feel like he's almost a shoe in to make the team yeah kind of i agree with that
10:32and i i think
10:33the other thing that this depth provides which is a good thing even though dan campbell said that
10:39that tate ratledge might get a look as well and get some snaps i don't think he took any snaps
10:43of the
10:44first team uh from center yesterday uh but that he he'll he'll get a look as well i think the
10:50best
10:51interesting to come out of this is if scruggs is the clear winner um that you don't have to shuffle
10:57everybody else around and then you know you're you're constantly having this incongruity with what
11:04the offensive line should be so hopefully that's the case and you've got your guards in place of
11:09mahogany and ratledge you got your tackles with panace sewell and whoever wins the job at right tackle
11:14and that you know the next five days or whenever it is that scruggs comes back that he or mcgwathen
11:22will separate themselves as being the guy although it's hard to separate yourself if you're scruggs and
11:25you're just coming back to practice but maybe it'll be obvious because you've got basically a rookie out
11:30there who's hardly you know worked out in a professional atmosphere uh because he was on a
11:35practice squad with cincinnati last year while he was still recovering from the achilles
11:39um and you've got a veteran in juice scruggs who's way more apt to step in and pick things up
11:45one more uh little offensive line note uh the best offensive linemen are inherently boring right
11:51they're boring because you're not hearing anything about them larry borum is the best possible name
11:56for an offensive lineman and to that note how about the fact that we've literally heard nothing
12:02about penne sewell and the adjustment the adaptation the fact that that is a boring story
12:10is the best news for this offensive line yeah and i've always thought that that was going to be a
12:16a nothing enchilada of a story never thought anything of it because penne sewell had already played left
12:22tackle in in college where he was the best in in college football he'd played a little bit of left
12:27tackle with the lions in the rookie year when taylor decker got hurt um and then switched over to the
12:32right side do i think there was going to be some kind of an adjustment period to move over to
12:36the
12:36left tackle sure but i wouldn't expect it to take long and you're right we have not heard anything
12:42about that since like the first couple days when they were asked questions about it but it's not
12:46being brought up because it's not going to be an issue and that's the best news of all 248-539
12:53-9797
12:55is the telephone number same number to text if you'd like uh talking about the lions offensive line
12:59situation how do you feel 24 hours later after the initial news broke of the cade may's injury
13:05we'll talk about with you next here on 97.1
13:07you
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