Without a doubt, the biggest loss to the Detroit Lions’ offense this year was the retirement of center Frank Ragnow. The four-time Pro Bowler wasn’t just an excellent athlete, blocker, and mauler, but his best asset may have been his intelligence. He was a mastermind when it came to reading defensive keys and getting the entire offensive line into the right protections nearly every time. He was lauded for his work ethic, being the first to arrive at meetings and the last to leave the facility. As Lions coaches have said all offseason, replacing Ragnow cannot be done with one person. It will be a committee.
But there can only be one center, and for 2025, it will be nine-year veteran Graham Glasgow. It’s been a while (2022) since Glasgow was a full-time starter at center, but he has logged 38 career starts there. More importantly, the Lions believe Glasgow has the intelligence to handle all the extra responsibilities that come with the center position, and it starts with his diligent note-taking.
“He’s a calming presence for everybody. His notetaking is one of the best I’ve been around, and he really keeps all of his old notebooks from last year; they’re still stacked up there,” Lions offensive line coach Hank Fraley said.
That stack of notebooks is high enough that it is a physical barrier at home. Glasgow’s wife pleads to have them tossed at the end of every season, but they contain nuggets that are valuable season-to-season.
“You always take down the notes of the general stuff, and then from there, I have a page of scouting, then the install page, and that’s usually a whole page, too,” Glasgow explained. “Then the notes on practices throughout the week, and then the notes on after the game, because you never know when you’re going to play them again, or, in this case (Packers), you will play them again.
“So it’s nice to be able to have those thoughts based on what you thought after the game or things that you might remember that you will probably forget in a month-and-a-half.”
Glasgow doesn’t know where the habit exactly came from; he just knows it works for him. But it’s something that Fraley noticed with Ragnow, and he believes Glasgow’s experience and notes should provide a similar resource of knowledge that will keep Detroit’s high standard of offensive line play intact.
“He’s already referencing, ‘Oh, well, we did this last year, are we doing this again?’” Fraley said. “They’re so detailed out, and he keeps them there for the year. That’s how him, and I would say, Ragnow were. Their books all stayed there through the years, and they just keep it going like a library for them. But he’s a smart player, he’s been in this league for a long time.”
Another key to Glasgow’s success will be his chemistry with quarterback Jared Goff. That goes well beyond the snap chemistry, as communication between the two will be essential to diagnosing everything pre-snap. By all accounts, the Lions are set there, too.
“Obviously, Frank is such a great player and it’s hard to replace him in any capacity, but Graham is a great player in his own right as well and has done a hell of a job stepping into that role,” Goff said this week. “And even last year, at times when he needed to step in there. He’s been great. I mean, he really has. He’s taken a lot of the responsibility on his shoulders, and I thought today was great by him, and he’s been a lot of fun to work with.”
Glasgow, as he is known to do, took the comedic approach about his relationship with Goff.
“He’s a lot more demanding than I remember,” Glasgow said. “He’s got a lot of—I don’t know—I get a little sweaty. He always is telling me to change my pants and stuff. He can be a little diva.”
Then he got serious about their budding relationship.
“He’ll ask me more questions about how I see something in regards to how I call things. He usually sees things the same way that I do, I feel like. We don’t ever really butt heads on anything,” Glasgow said.
Detroit’s offensive line will obviously have a pretty big test in Week 1 against the Green Bay Packers and newly-added Micah Parsons. But for the offensive line, it will be more about just going about their business, whether Parsons is on the edge or in the interior.
“You stick with your rules and stay sound,” Fraley said. “And I always remind these guys—you know, Graham is really our center. He’s never chased ghosts, either, and stuff like that. And just stay with it. We can block everything, because all our plays, all our protections, all our run games, they have rules. And they can line up in anything they want to do, something they’ve never shown last year or never shown at all, but rules take place, and just trust what they’ve been doing along those lines.”
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