Lions' RG competition is a close battle

Per Justin Rogers of the Detroit News, Vaitai entered training camp as the betting favorite for the post, which he manned from 2020-21 after signing a lucrative free-agent contract with the Lions in March 2020. He struggled a bit in his first season in the Motor City, a campaign that was tainted to some degree by injury, but he rebounded with a strong 15-game performance in 2021. Unfortunately, he was forced to undergo back surgery last September, which caused him to miss the entire 2022 slate and to even consider retirement.

While Vaitai elected to resume his playing career, he did have to take a pay cut to remain on the roster. Meanwhile, Detroit reunited with Glasgow and allowed Evan Brown, who served as Vaitai’s primary replacement last year, to depart in free agency. Glasgow, a former third-round pick of the Lions, spent the last three seasons with the Broncos, and he will provide experienced insurance at both guard positions and at center in the event he does not win the right guard gig.

As Rogers notes, Vaitai was absent for a brief time in this year’s camp due to injury, and since then, he and Glasgow have largely split first-team reps at RG. Glasgow’s efforts in this positional battle have been compromised a bit by the fact that he has to step in for starting pivot Frank Ragnow whenever Ragnow needs time off, but he believes he has acquitted himself well just the same.

“I was saying earlier, I think if you can play center, you can play guard,” he said. “I would like to get more guard reps, but at the end of the day, it’s just the price of doing business.”

Both players have plenty of financial motivation. After being released by Denver three years into a four-year, $44M contract, Glasgow is due just $1.5M in base pay on his one-year pact this season (though he can earn up to $4.5M.) And Vaitai, as part of the above-referenced pay cut, agreed to remove the 2024 season from his contract, which means he, like Glasgow, will be eligible for free agency next year.