With Ryan Clady out of mix, where do the Lions go at LT? – Detroit Free Press
They missed out on Russell Okung in free agency. They didn’t make any real effort to sign Kelvin Beachum. Cordy Glenn got the franchise tag before he became available. And on Saturday, the Denver Broncos traded the last best left tackle option, Ryan Clady, to the New York Jets for an exchange of draft picks?
So where do the Detroit Lions go at left tackle now? In all likelihood, back to the same well they’ve been drinking from the last three seasons.
Despite some effort to move Reiff to his more natural right tackle position for the final year of his contract — they did pursue Okung, after all — the Lions will enter off-season workouts next week with their 2012 first-round pick as their starting left tackle.
Reiff has started 47 of a possible 48 games at left tackle over the last three years, and he’s done so in a fashion to similar to his predecessor, Jeff Backus. He’s durable but far from perfect, allowing 14.5 sacks over the last three seasons according to STATS LLC. And while he may never be a Pro Bowler at the position, he’s certainly one of the steadier options available.
“Here’s the thing,” Lions coach Jim Caldwell said last month when asked why the Lions were looking to replace Reiff. “Riley is our starting left tackle at this point. We’re always going to look to try to improve our team. And you may hear about a number of guys that come in that we look to. But what we do with them when they arrive, those things all depend on where we think they best fit for us. But Riley has played well for us, played tough. He’s been our most consistent guy on that line, and so let’s not diminish what he’s done. But this game is a competitive guy and one of our desires is to make certain that at every position there’s an immense amount of competition and I think we’re heading in that direction.”
With Clady now in Denver — he was made expendable by the Broncos’ acquisition of Okung — the Lions would seem to have only a handful of options left to upgrade their tackle positions:
- Will Beatty, free agent — Beatty, 31, is the best free agent lineman left on the market, and the only one who might compete for a starting job with the Lions (perhaps at right tackle with Michael Ola). Beatty missed all of last season with a torn pectoral muscle and was cut by the New York Giants in February. But he was the Giants’ starting left tackle from 2011-14 and made a few starts at right tackle in 2009.
- Ronnie Stanley, Notre Dame — Stanley is considered by most the second best offensive lineman in the draft, after Ole Miss’ Laremy Tunsil. While Tunsil is a lock for the draft’s first five picks, Stanley’s stock isn’t quite as settled. He should go in the top 10, but if he falls to 16, the Lions – who had offensive line coach Ron Prince run his pro day workout – will have a tough time passing. Even so, there’s no guarantee Stanley is a better Day 1 starter at left tackle than Reiff.
- Jack Conklin, Michigan State — There’s debate amongst teams who the No. 3 tackle is, Conklin, Ohio State’s Taylor Decker or Texas A&M’s Germain Ifedi. All three are good athletes, but Conklin, who changed his body dramatically after MSU’s season, might be the best football player of the bunch. If the Lions took Conklin with the 16th pick, they’d probably start him at right tackle and keep Reiff on the left side.
- Taylor Decker, Ohio State — Decker is a more natural athlete than Conklin in some scouts’ eyes, but he has shorter arms than most teams want in their left tackles (at 32 7/8 inches). Like Conklin, he’d probably start his career competing for the right tackle job or as a swing sixth lineman if he ended up in Detroit.
Contact Dave Birkett at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@davebirkett
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