Graham Glasgow has had many homes on the offensive line. He figured he was finally settling in at right guard when he prepared to re-sign with the Lions this offseason. Glasgow didn't want to test free agency, didn't want to play anywhere other than Detroit after reuniting with old friends last year and helping anchor one of the best offensive lines in the NFL. A few days before the start of free agency, Dan Campbell called and said, "There's a possibility that we would want you to move to left guard."
"I was like, 'Uh, let me talk to my agent,'" Glasgow said. "We talked for a bit and I called him back and asked, 'Are you just saying that knowing that you’re going to move me? Or is it really one of those situations where there's a small chance that it could happen?'"
Campbell told Glasgow that it wasn't necessarily the Lions' plan, but that it was on the table. Detroit was still figuring out how to replace left guard Jonah Jackson, who was headed for free agency and a lucrative deal with the Rams. Glasgow followed his heart and signed a three-year, $20 million with the Lions on the eve of free agency. About a week later, Campbell called and said the Lions were thinking about signing Kevin Zeitler, which would indeed require Glasgow flipping over to the left.
Glasgow said he "thought it was a joke at the beginning." Enough time had passed since his initial conversation with Campbell that he figured the Lions had come up with a different plan at left guard. If it was a joke, "it wasn't very funny to me," Glasgow said with a laugh. He quickly realized Campbell was serious and resolved to make the best of it: "There’s not really a lot of time to dwell on it. You gotta just get to work."
"I was like, 'OK. Alright. I mean, you did say there was a possibility for it to happen,'" Glasgow said.
The move won't be easy. But if anyone can make it look easy, it's Glasgow. He played all three spots on the interior offensive line at Michigan, before the Lions drafted him in 2016 as a center. Shortly into Glasgow's rookie season, Detroit started rotating him at left guard, before injuries pushed him there full-time. That's where he stayed for most of the following season. Surely some of that experience must help him now.
"No," Glasgow laughed. "It doesn't."
Essentially, the muscle memory he developed at left guard has been erased. He went on to be the Lions' starting center in year three, then a rotating right guard in year four, because Matt Patricia. He left for the Broncos, because Bob Quinn, and played right guard and a little center over three seasons in Denver. When he returned to Detroit last year, he thrived at right guard after taking over for the injured Halapoulivaati Vaitai early in the season. (Being Graham Glasgow, he also logged some snaps at center and left guard.)
Zeitler, a Pro Bowler last season, has taken all but four snaps of his 12-year career at right guard. (That's 12,025 snaps, total.) Knowing that, "I feel like it’s probably not right to ask him to move," Glasgow said. "Which I understand, I understand how the business works."
"Graham’s the man," Zeitler said Thursday. "Just a team guy. Real smart, too, in the room. We basically have two centers on the offensive line every play, him and Frank (Ragnow). It’s pretty amazing the arguments they can get into on the line, but the fact that he was willing to go back over to left guard when I came in, he’s a team guy, he deserves all the praise."
Glasgow has enjoyed having Zeitler around. He brings a wealth of experience and a yeoman's attitude that suits Detroit's offensive line. When Campbell gave the vets the day off for Wednesday's walk-through, Zeitler "almost didn't know what to do," Glasgow said. He's lost without work.
"He’s been playing for what feels like an eternity," said Glasgow. "That’s not a bad thing. He’s extremely stable, he’s the same guy every day, and you really can’t understate how important that is, the consistency in your relationships with guys on the line. He’s putting in the effort, he’s buying in. He wants to do it the way we do it, which is actually pretty cool to see."
Glasgow's transition to the left is coming along. He said he's "been getting better at it and more comfortable" by the day. Fortunately the season doesn't start for another month. The challenge in switching sides is mental as much as physical. As Glasgow explained, he doesn't always interpret play calls as right or left so much as whether or not they're coming his way.
"Sometimes I hear a play where I'm like, I’m on the play side, and then I'm like, 'Oh sh*t, I’m not. I’m actually on the backside.' Go the wrong way, that’s not good. There’s that," Glasgow said.
And then there's the physical adjustment: "Outside of the stance and the footwork, I feel like if you’re used to having one leg be your post leg and one leg be your brace, it’s a lot harder to switch that. And the same thing with your arms: which hand is going to be the one that you’re primarily punching with in pass pro, which one is going to be your catch hand? It’s tough, but we’re getting there," Glasgow said.
It helps that he's playing on an exceptionally cohesive line, and between two of his closest friends in Ragnow and Taylor Decker. Communication is one of the group's many strong suits, to the point that "half the time, we don’t really even need to talk out there," Glasgow said. And when they do, they can solve problems "before they happen." The Lions' offensive line fueled a top-five rushing attack and a top-five passing attack last season, matched in that regard by only the 49ers.
The goal is to be better this year, and to go two steps further as a team. For Glasgow, it's quite literally one step at a time.
"I feel like ever since I came back here that was always the expectation, that we’re going to be one of the best (offensive lines) in the NFL, if not the best," he said. "And we’re just going out here doing what we can to make sure that’s a reality."