DETROIT – A lot of Detroit Lions fans woke up frustrated today about the team’s inaction at the trade deadline.
It’s hard to blame them.
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The Lions are coming off a deflating home loss to the division-rival Minnesota Vikings, one that exposed a weakness at the very core of this team’s identity.
It’s hard to believe, but the Lions have an offensive line crisis.
Offensive line struggles
Part of it is the loss of Christian Mahogany to a long-term injury. But if we’re being honest, the issues existed even before that.
When the Lions lost Frank Ragnow to retirement and Kevin Zeitler to free agency in the offseason, they decided to roll the dice on a rookie, a second-year sixth-round pick, and two aging veterans alongside superstar right tackle Penei Sewell.
And it has not gone well.
Despite having the most dynamic running back duo in the league in Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, the Lions rank 14th with 4.4 yards per carry.
In the past four games, Jared Goff has been sacked 14 times, including a season-high five times against the Vikings.
Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell built the Lions on the back of a strong offensive line. Now, other than Sewell, this unit is the team’s greatest weakness.
It’s difficult to add to the offensive line at the trade deadline because teams don’t want to part with those players. Even if you can make a deal, cohesion is so important to that group that it can be difficult for new additions to acclimate on the fly.
But it felt like the Lions at least had to try. Fans were clamoring for a deal to rescue Zeitler from the 1-8 Tennessee Titans because of his familiarity with the system. The Lions have a new offensive coordinator and a new center, so it wouldn’t have been a seamless reunion, but it would definitely help shore up the interior in the wake of Mahogany going down.
Why this deadline was so frustrating
While offensive line is the primary concern, the Lions also could have upgraded on the defensive side of the ball. Their secondary is decimated with injuries, and there’s still room to improve the pass rush.
The frustration for Lions fans at Holmes’ inaction was compounded by the fact that many of the players they had in mind were traded to fellow contenders.
The New York Jets traded superstar cornerback Sauce Gardner to the Indianapolis Colts and elite defensive tackle Quinnen Williams to the Dallas Cowboys.
Both went for steep prices, but the Lions could have added one of the top cornerbacks in the league or an excellent interior pass rusher to a roster that’s already Super Bowl caliber. That would have been a major spark.
But Holmes didn’t even have to go that big to satisfy most of the fan base. Miami Dolphins defensive end Jaelan Phillips went to NFC rival Philadelphia for a third-round pick. Cornerback Roger McCreary went from the Titans to the Los Angeles Rams for a fifth-rounder.
Dre’Mont Jones, Keion White, and Jaire Alexander all went for late-round picks.
The Eagles, Rams, and 49ers -- three of the top Super Bowl contenders in the NFC -- all improved their rosters before the deadline. The Lions just watched.
Recent draft misses
It’s no secret that Holmes values every draft pick. That mentality is what got the Lions to the NFC Championship Game two years ago and a 15-2 record in 2024.
His list of success stories from 2021-2023 is astonishing:
- Penei Sewell in the first round in 2021.
- Alim McNeill in the third round in 2021.
- Amon-Ra St. Brown in the fourth round in 2021.
- Derrick Barnes in the fourth round in 2021.
- Aidan Hutchinson in the first round in 2022.
- Jameson Williams in the first round in 2022.
- Kerby Joseph in the third round in 2022.
- Malcolm Rodriguez in the sixth round in 2022.
- Jahmyr Gibbs in the first round in 2023.
- Jack Campbell in the first round in 2023.
- Sam LaPorta in the second round in 2023.
- Brian Branch in the second round in 2023.
But we might have to start having a conversation about the Lions’ drafting soon. Because since that Branch selection, there have been some bad misses.
Here’s every selection the Lions have made since the end of the second round in 2023:
- Hendon Hooker in the third round in 2023.
- Brodric Martin in the third round in 2023.
- Colby Sorsdal in the fifth round in 2023.
- Antoine Green in the seventh round in 2023.
- Terrion Arnold in the first round in 2024.
- Ennis Rakestraw in the second round in 2024.
- Giovanni Manu in the fourth round in 2024.
- Sione Vaki in the fourth round in 2024.
- Mekhi Wingo in the sixth round in 2024.
- Christian Mahogany in the sixth round in 2024.
- Tyleik Williams in the first round in 2025.
- Tate Ratledge in the second round in 2025.
- Isaac TeSlaa in the third round in 2025.
- Miles Frazier in the fifth round in 2025.
- Ahmed Hassanein in the sixth round in 2025.
- Dan Jackson in the seventh round in 2025.
- Dominic Lovett in the seventh round in 2025.
If we’re being generous, we can call Arnold, Mahogany, Williams, and Ratledge potential wins for Holmes. But none of those four have yet made a major impact.
So the drafting has fallen off, there’s no denying it. But Holmes might be a victim of his own success in this conversation because he was so otherworldly good in the previous three drafts.
The main concern as it relates to the deadline is the return he’s gotten when trading mid-round picks.
Holmes could have added players like Phillips, McCreary, Alexander, or others by trading mid- or late-round draft picks this week. Instead, he held onto those picks, which brings up the question: What are they worth?
In 2024, the Lions traded their 2025 third-round pick straight up to the Jets for a fourth-rounder so they could pick Manu. He was labelled as a project and has been a nonfactor, even before his knee injury.
Also in 2024, the Lions traded their 2025 fourth-round pick to move up in the fourth round to select Vaki, a running back who would slot behind Gibbs and Montgomery. It felt like an odd choice at the time, and it’s only gotten worse since, as Vaki is not a major factor for this team.
Back in 2023, the Lions traded a trio of picks -- a fourth-rounder and two fifths -- to move up and draft Martin in the third. Martin has never been a factor.
None of those moves worked out, and this deadline, those types of picks could have been used to acquire a more proven player for a Super Bowl-ready roster.
And we haven’t even gotten to the one that everyone is talking about.
Isaac TeSlaa/Jameson Williams debacle
It shocked pretty much everybody this year when Holmes traded two third-round picks in 2026 and their third-rounder in 2025 to move up 32 spots and select TeSlaa, a wide receiver from Arkansas.
With the way the Lions value those mid-round picks, for Holmes to give up three third-rounders for TeSlaa said a lot.
So it made what happened a few months later even more bizarre.
In September, the Lions gave wide receiver Jameson Williams a massive three-year extension worth $83 million that will keep him in Detroit through the 2029 season.
As a 2025 non-first-round draft pick, TeSlaa is under team control until 2028.
It’s a really strange series of moves, especially since the Lions will have to find a way to extend their elite 2023 draft class: Branch, Campbell, LaPorta, and Gibbs.
We all figured the Lions overpaid to draft TeSlaa because they were planning to let Williams walk and pay the 2023 guys. But then they paid up for Williams anyway, and TeSlaa isn’t playing.
Maybe it will all work out, and Holmes has earned the benefit of the doubt. But on a day like today, when his moves are under a microscope, it’s worth questioning.
Worse than Detroit Tigers trade deadline
It doesn’t help the Lions that a vast majority of their fans were already frustrated with the way their baseball team handled the trade deadline a few months ago.
Scott Harris took a ton of criticism for sticking to small moves when the Tigers were in first place at the deadline. Neither of the starting pitchers he added worked out, and only Kyle Finnegan made a major impact out of the bullpen.
Click here to read everything Harris said about his trade deadline moves at the end of the season.
Say what you want about Harris’ deadline, but there are a few reasons I think he’s taking too much criticism.
- There were very few players traded at the deadline who actually made an impact for playoff teams.
- The Tigers didn’t lose because of their pitching. They fell apart because of the offense.
- The Tigers probably weren’t a World Series roster.
The same can’t be said about the Lions.
What happens the rest of the season remains to be seen, but it’s unlikely that Gardner, Quinnen Williams, Phillips, and others won’t make an impact down the stretch.
The Lions are clearly in a Super Bowl window right now, and the offensive line is what’s holding them back. If they couldn’t reasonably upgrade there, beefing up the secondary or pass rush felt like another possible way to compensate.
Neither had a great deadline, but when comparing Holmes to Harris, one is in a clear championship window and watched clear targets get moved to other teams.
Challenges that face Lions going forward
Now that the major opportunities for the Lions to upgrade their roster have passed, they’re more or less stuck with the guys they’ve got in that locker room.
On top of the sacks and the difficulty running the football, the offensive line is handcuffing the Lions on third down. They’ve yet to convert a third down of 10+ yards this season, and that’s because Goff and offensive coordinator John Morton have no time to let routes develop downfield.
So they can’t run the ball on early downs, which forces them into third-and-long situations. And then in those situations, there isn’t enough time to throw beyond the sticks.
It’s a bit of a vicious cycle, and now the Lions are going to have to figure it out on the fly.
Morton is an easy target of frustration because the Lions keep throwing the ball behind the line of scrimmage. It’s maddening for a unit that has weapons like St. Brown, LaPorta, and Williams on the field.
But when Goff actually drops back, he’s almost always facing pressure. And when Goff faces pressure, he’s not effective. That’s when his lack of mobility really comes into play.
Everything on offense starts with in the trenches, which is why the Lions have been so dynamic in recent seasons when guys like Ragnow, Taylor Decker, Zeitler, and Sewell were firing on all cylinders.
Now that unit is much less formidable, and thus, the offense has taken a step back.
The Lions are still talented enough to win a Super Bowl, but it feels much less likely than it did at this time last week.
Remember right after the trade deadline, when the Tigers lost to the Phillies and Jhoan Duran -- one of the fan base’s top trade targets?
The vibes could be very similar in two weeks, when the beefed up Eagles host the Lions on Sunday Night Football.