Titans are paying $9 million to learn what Lions already knew

The Detroit Lions' offensive line had a Week 1 to forget. Between multiple sacks allowed on Jared Goff to basically no run game opened up, the teams' new look line set up to protect their quarterback looks like it needs quite a bit more time to flesh itself out before we're talking about any Super Bowls.

Of course, the Lions lost two major pieces of their offensive line this offseason: center Frank Ragnow, who retired, and guard Kevin Zeitler, who left the Lions to sign a one year, $9 million deal with the Tennessee Titans this offseason. Zeitler has now gone from protecting Goff to protecting the 2025 NFL Draft's top pick, Cam Ward.

Lions fans might be wondering how Zeitler's debut with the Titans went, and the simple answer is: it looked a heck of a lot better than either of the Lions' guards in Week 1. Zeitler didn't allow any sacks on Ward, and helped to open up a bit of the run game for Tennessee as they dropped their opener 20-12 against the Denver Broncos.

Zeitler looked solid, as always, in debut for Titans

Tate Ratledge, the Lions' second round pick from this year's draft, replaced Zeitler this offseason. He swung between guard and center in mini camp and training camp for a bit until the job at center was fully handed over to Graham Glasgow.

Ratledge was certainly not the worst linemen in the Lions' loss to the Green Bay Packers, with Glasgow potentially taking that title with a final PFF grade of 43.9 after one outing. Zeitler finished up with a PFF grade of 63.2 on the day while also not allowing any sacks.

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Zeitler was solid with Detroit last season, only allowing five sacks on the entire season and finishing up with a 86.5 PFF grade. He was perpetually one of the teams more reliable linemen in addition to Ragnow and tackle Penei Sewell, and his services felt sorely needed as Goff struggled to trust his newer line against Green Bay's ridiculous defense.

He also played in nearly every game last season, a breath of fresh air for a Detroit team that was hamstrung by injuries deep in the year.

While the team has high hopes for Ratledge, there's clearly some major work to be done to address what's left of at the center position after Ragnow's retirement. And, despite Ratledge's semi-success in his debut, you can't help but wonder if the Lions' line from last season would've struggled this severely on opening day. That all said, it's nice to see that Zeitler is establishing a new role with Tennessee as one of Ward's most important protectors.