The Detroit Lions proceed to fill holes on their roster, and on Monday evening, they stuffed a starter-sized gap on the offensive line once they reportedly sagreed to phrases with former Baltimore Ravens Professional Bowler Kevin Zeitler.
Let’s check out how Zeitler suits in with the Lions’ roster and scheme, in addition to how his addition will affect Detroit’s offseason plans.
Roster match
The Lions’ offensive identification begins with their offensive line. Over the past three seasons, we’ve got seen three totally different members of the Lions’ offensive line get Professional Bowl nominations (Frank Ragnow, Penei Sewell, and Jonah Jackson), and two landed on All-Professional groups (Ragnow and Sewell). Ragnow and Graham Glasgow are signed by 2026, Sewell will certainly have his fifth-year possibility picked up for 2025, Taylor Decker is within the last yr of his contract and carries the second-highest cap hit on the roster, and Jackson departed for the L.A. Rams in free company after his rookie contract expired.
So how do you fill a Professional Bowl-sized gap at guard? Signal one other Professional Bowler in Zeitler.
The Lions have invested closely of their offensive tackles and middle, and with the intention to hold positional prices down, they’ve focused “getting older” veterans (Glasgow is 31 years previous) or rookies to fill the gaps at guard. With Jackson’s rookie deal off the books, the Lions focused veteran Zeitler (who simply turned 34 years previous this month) to assist fill the void.
With 12 years of expertise—beginning a minimum of 15 video games each season—Zeitler is a tradition setter on the offensive line. He’s bodily, highly effective, and carries a nasty demeanor into video games, which can match proper into the Lions’ “grit” tradition.
Whereas not as athletic as he as soon as was, like with Glasgow, Zeitler is very clever and technically sound, which ends up in significantly extra success than you may anticipate for a participant his age.
Scheme match
The Lions run a combination of hole and outdoors zone blocking schemes and ask their inside gamers to do a litany of duties. They’ve to have the ability to attain the second degree, pull and attain outdoors blocks, in addition to drive off double groups, to call just a few.
In Zeitler’s previous three seasons in Baltimore, the Ravens used a number of hole and pulling schemes when Greg Roman was their offensive coordinator however shifted to a extra zone-heavy strategy final season below Todd Monken. Whatever the idea, Zeitler discovered a number of success. PFF graded Zeitler out as a prime 15 guard in 2021 and 2023, whereas he completed seventh in 2022. As a run blocker, his scores landed him within the prime 30 in 2021 and 2023, whereas he hit sixteenth in 2022. His finest attribute, per PFF, is his cross blocking the place he has completed within the prime 4 every of the final three seasons, together with final season when he completed because the second-best pass-blocking guard within the NFL.
Offseason affect
The Lions entered the offseason with just a few beginning roles to fill on each side of the ball, however after re-signing Glasgow, buying and selling for Carlton Davis, signing DJ Reader, and now including Zeitler, Detroit has achieved a terrific job utilizing free company to complement their roster and fill wants.
As I discussed in every of the earlier roster affect articles, free company is organising for the Lions to really enter the draft with a “finest participant obtainable” strategy. And whereas they’ve stuffed some beginning roles and added depth items, you may nonetheless make an argument for the Lions so as to add a prospect at nearly any place at nearly any level within the draft—and guard isn’t any totally different.
Zeitler and Glasgow are each stable beginning guard choices—Glasgow completed because the eighth-best guard final season, per PFF’s general grades, to pair with Zeitler’s fifteenth rating—however they’re each over 30 years previous. As soon as a participant crosses the 30-year-old threshold, groups usually begin on the lookout for replacements that they’ll develop for the long run, whereas additionally including worth as insurance coverage in opposition to damage.
Search for the Lions to take this strategy and draft an inside offensive lineman—guard or middle—with considered one of their three top-100 picks.