{"id":281992,"date":"2026-05-10T09:30:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T13:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=281992"},"modified":"2026-05-10T09:18:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T13:18:05","slug":"hank-fraley-the-key-to-detroits-offensive-line-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/05\/10\/hank-fraley-the-key-to-detroits-offensive-line-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Hank Fraley, The Key to Detroit’s Offensive Line Success"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Brad Holmes\u2019s number one priority was improving the Detroit Lions’ o-line in 2026 through the Draft and free agency. However, offensive line coach Hank Fraley <\/span><\/a>remains<\/span>\u00a0one of the most<\/span> important contributing factors<\/span> to the team\u2019s success.<\/p>\r\n

Hank Fraley, The Genius Behind Detroit’s Offensive Line\u00a0<\/h2>\r\n

Entering his ninth year with the Lions, Fraley has a fully loaded arsenal of offensive talent at his disposal. <\/span>This year\u2019s o-line will look very different from last season. Last year, the injury-depleted, inexperienced backup offensive line frequently struggled with missed assignments and miscues. Despite Detroit finishing 4th in the NFC North in 2925, the Lions still posted 6,344 yards of total offense. With 4,564 passing yards, Jared Goff<\/a> finished second in the NFL. Only Matthew Stafford surpassed that mark with 4,707 yards. \u00a0<\/span>This year, an added infusion of healthy veteran talent will eliminate those mistakes. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Lions Anticipated Offensive Line Starters<\/h3>\r\n

Free Agent Cade Mays fills the void at center<\/a> left by Frank Ragnow\u2019s retirement. It’s expected that Penei Sewell will move to left tackle<\/a>, making room for Detroit\u2019s 2026 NFL Draft first-round pick, Blake Miller<\/a>, who projects as a Day 1 starter at right tackle. Tate Ratledge<\/a> remains at right guard after his promising rookie year, where he posted a 70.3 PFF score. Christian Mahogany\u2019s injury-plagued season in 2025 led to a drop in performance following his rookie year, but he will likely remain at left guard. However, he could face stiff competition from recently acquired former San Francisco 49ers’<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>lineman Ben Bartch, who posted a 71.7 PFF score<\/a> last year on 195 snaps at left guard. Bartch allowed zero sacks and only 4 pressures without drawing a penalty.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Due to an injury-plagued rookie season, Miles Frazier<\/a> had a limited snap count in 2025. However, he is another option at right guard. Holmes acquired rotational depth with Juice Scruggs and Larry Borum, who provide veteran experience, on both sides of the line. Scruggs, a former Houston Texans<\/a> <\/span><\/span>lineman who was part of the David Montgomery trade<\/a>, primarily played left guard but is also experienced at center. Recently acquired NFL veteran, Borum, has six years of experience playing left and right tackle<\/a> for the Chicago Bears<\/a><\/span> <\/span>and the Miami Dolphins.<\/a>\u00a0 He<\/span>\u00a0is likely to be positioned as a swing tackle for the Lions. \u00a0<\/p>\r\n

How Fraley Is Key To the Lions’ Success\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\r\n

A former offensive lineman who played in 11 NFL seasons despite entering the league as an undrafted free agent from Robert Morris, Fraley guided the Holmes \/ Campbell era Lions to their most dominant franchise success in 2023 and 2024. A former Philadelphia Eagles\u2019 lineman who was instrumental in the team’s reaching the NFL\u2019s upper echelon in Super Bowl XXXIX in 2004, Fraley has a gift for teaching young players.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Under Fraley\u2019s leadership, the Lions’ offensive line was one of the NFL\u2019s best in 2023 and 2024, recording the sixth most rushing yards with 8,864 yards and 91 rushing touchdowns, which ranked 2nd in the NFL. In addition, Detroit\u2019s offensive line protected Goff,<\/a> allowing the fourth fewest sacks (124) during that time span. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\r\n

Fraley\u2019s Gift For Teaching\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\r\n

Dan Campbell has consistently praised Fraley\u2019s teaching skills. <\/span><\/a>“Hank\u2019s got a good feel of it, having played the position, but also coached it. And he\u2019s got a real good feel of those guys, what they do well, how to develop the talent, and he just \u2013 he\u2019s got a real good feel of how to pull it out of them\u2026 you\u2019ve got to understand the technique and you can give guys things that they need to survive and that\u2019s what Hank\u2019s able to do\u2026but man, you\u2019ve got to be able to communicate and you\u2019ve got to be able to motivate to push these guys.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Campbell has so much confidence in Fraley that, in addition to his offensive line duties, he gave him the title of run-game coordinator as well in 2025. For the Lions, the two go hand-in- hand. Working directly with the running backs while developing offensive linemen seems a natural extension. Together, the players can determine what works best in terms of executing blocks, run angles, and the critical timing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Although the line sputtered in 2025, that was the result of the loss of a Pro Bowl center in Ragnow and an ever-changing, rotating cast of inexperienced players due to injuries. Fraley did what he could with an injury-depleted, inexperienced lineup. \u00a0This season, he hopes to recreate the standard of the Lions\u2019 2023-2024 success. \u00a0<\/span>Imagine what Fraley could accomplish now<\/span> armed with a healthy, revamped offensive line of seasoned veterans and promising young talent.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brad Holmes\u2019s number one priority was improving the Detroit Lions’ o- line in 2026. However, the most important contributing factor in the team\u2019s success remains offensive line coach Hank Fraley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5208,"featured_media":255415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6431,24],"tags":[33533,33029,34277,32425,33201,451,9831,34278,6991,10071],"class_list":["post-281992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-teams","category-lions","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-blake-miller","tag-cade-mays","tag-christian-mahogany","tag-hank-fraley","tag-jared-goff","tag-juice-scruggs","tag-larry-borum","tag-penei-sewell","tag-tate-ratledge"],"modified_by":"Sue Levine","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5208"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281992"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282800,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281992\/revisions\/282800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}