The competition for the next starting center has begun

Mike Payton discusses the potential options at the starting center position for the Detroit Lions

Transcript

00:00After Frank Ragnall's retirement, Dan Campbell made some comments on Thursday that make it seem

00:04like center is anyone's game and the Lions do not quite have that figured out yet. Let's talk about

00:09it. Hi, Mike Payton from A to Z Sports Detroit. Frank Ragnall retired this week to the shock of

00:17a lot of people, but definitely not the Lions. The Lions knew about it. Dan Campbell confirmed

00:22that. That would explain some of the draft picks they've made and some of the moves that they made

00:26this offseason. But as things stand right now, the Lions do not seem to have their future figured

00:31out at center. Now, the thought initially was that it would be Graham Glasgow, considering that he has

00:36played center for the Lions in relief of Frank Ragnall before, but that may not exactly be the

00:41case. Dan Campbell brought up a ton of different players on Thursday, even some guys who have not

00:45even played center. The first one was Tate Ratledge, second round pick in this year's draft. He has not

00:50played center, but the Lions have already started to rep him there at OTAs at rookie minicamp. We'll

00:55see where camp goes. But so far, it seems like that might be a possibility. With doing that,

01:01you get Graham Glasgow at one guard, you get Christian Mahogany at the other guard,

01:05and that sort of stabilizes the rookie in the middle. That was the argument that Dan Campbell

01:09was making. Another player he was talking about was Kingsley Aguquan, who was a undrafted free agent

01:16last year. The only other true center on this team, he had a pretty good summer last year. It seemed

01:21like he was going to make the 53-man roster. Ultimately, he did not. But this year, he has

01:26an opportunity to really show that, hey, I can play center. I could start there. This is a guy who

01:31could come out of nowhere and score this job. Dan Campbell brought him up multiple times,

01:36unprompted. That's a name to keep an eye on. Another guy, Coyote Awaseka. Now, Awaseka has never

01:42played center. He has been a decent relief guard during the 2024 season, 2023 season, but can he play center?

01:49We don't know. Then there's a new guy, Tristan Colon. He played center at Missouri. Played center

01:54a few times for the Baltimore Ravens as a starter. Had some pretty good starts there. Looked pretty

01:59good, but hasn't actually played much center since 2022. He's been more of a guard, definitely with

02:05Arizona. They played him at center for a few snaps in one game, but he's been mostly a guard for them.

02:10That's another one that you can look at and see where that goes. Michael Neese, he was kind of

02:15impressive when he was at center last year. He was kind of good, just filling in for Frank

02:18Ragnow for a little bit, just trying some things. He never really did it in a game.

02:22There's quite a few options that the Lions have at this point. Nothing is figured out,

02:26but this might be the new biggest battle of the summer. If I've got to put money on somebody right

02:31now, it's probably Graham Glasgow, but I'm really looking at Kingsley here. I really think that this

02:37guy might show up and shock some people. Let me know what you guys think in the comments.

02:41We'll talk to you next time.