One of the more interesting takeaways from Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes’ appearance on the Lions Collective podcast was hearing him talk about free agent signing Larry Borom. Holmes was very high on the offensive tackle who served as the Dolphins’ backup tackle last year, but ended up starting 11 games for them at right tackle. Holmes clearly was impressed by his 2025 tape.
“Seeing what he did at Miami, especially at right tackle—you start looking at the film, and it’s like, ‘Man, this is probably the most consistent ball that I’ve seen him play,’” Holmes said. “Then you start taking a deeper dive of him at right tackle even in the past, and you start seeing this level of consistency versus the guard spots or the left tackle spots. (I’m) not saying that he can’t play those spots, too, because he can. But that’s what kept him up there for us.”
That’s an eye-opening admission not just because it shows how much they like Borom, but because they like him so much at right tackle, specifically.
Of course, the Lions already have arguably the best right tackle in football in Penei Sewell, but there has been a lot of speculation on whether the team would consider moving him to left tackle this year after the release of Taylor Decker.
Later in the interview, Holmes admitted that Sewell’s versatility—he played left tackle in college—has allowed Detroit to be flexible in their approach to the offensive line this offseason.
“That’s the beauty of having a player like him. You always have that flexibility of the possibility of him playing left tackle,” Holmes said. “He’s done it before. It’s not anything foreign to him. So even as we were going through free agency, we weren’t really pigeonholed like, ‘We’ve got to get a left tackle. We’ve got to get a right tackle.’ We were just like, ‘What’s the best tackle for us?’ And then we’ll kind of adjust as needed.”
So clearly there’s an openness to moving Sewell to left tackle, and given Holmes’ excitement about Borom as a right tackle, that may be the plan given the current roster.
However, Borom is on just a one-year deal, and the Lions may be in the sweet spot in next month’s NFL Draft to take a tackle with the 17th overall pick. If that’s the plan, we now know that they likely won’t care about left tackle vs. right tackle. It’ll be more about fit with the team, and they’ll adjust Sewell’s role accordingly.
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