Four years ago, Tate Ratledge hosted Monroe Freeling on a recruiting visit to Georgia. They were teammates on Georgia's offensive line for the next two seasons. Freeling watched Ratledge get married this winter. Could they reunite this spring in Detroit?
"If I ever get the chance to play with him again," Freeling said at the combine, "I would be ecstatic."
The better question might be this: Could Freeling fall to No. 17 in this month's draft? If he does, it's not hard to imagine the Lions scooping him up. In fact, it's hard to imagine that they wouldn't. Restoring the offensive line has been Detroit's top priority this offseason. Larry Borom might be a fine stopgap at offensive tackle across from Penei Sewell, but Freeling would be a pillar. He has the sort of ceiling that could give the Lions the best tandem of tackles in the NFL.
"I’ve studied Andrew Thomas, Garrett Bolles, Trent Williams, Penei Sewell, all the great offensive tackles and looking at pieces of their game and how I can apply it to mine," Freeling said.
Freeling's game is still growing. He only started for a season and a half at Georgia, which is why he might not be a plug-and-play tackle in the NFL. He could afford to add some more muscle and clean up some of his technique. But he has the frame (6'7), the length and the agility that often coalesce into premier players at one of the game's premium positions.
"When you’re looking at pick 17, Monroe Freeling makes a lot of sense there as someone who’s got excellent size, and there’s some torque and physicality and aggressiveness to him, the way he plays," said NFL Draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah.
That was before the combine, where Freeling really boosted his stock. He earned a Relative Athletic Score of 9.99 out of 10, second out of 1,642 offensive tackles ever evaluated. Some teams might look at his limited college track record and see inexperience, and risk. Most see serious upside.
"You come to Georgia to get developed and you go through hard stuff," Freeling said. "So if I’m an NFL team, I’m betting on a Georgia player 10 out of 10 times."
There are a few non-negotiables to play in Detroit under Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes. You better be tough. You better care about your teammates. And you better love football, like it infects you. Freeling suffered a high ankle sprain against Kentucky last season that knocked him out of the game and was originally supposed to sideline him for a few weeks. But Georgia had Auburn next.
Freeling spent the week walking in a boot and sleeping with a Game Ready wrap around his leg, hoping he could play. At one point, he overheard some of the coaches "talking about if they were going to travel me or not." He texted one of them and said, "You gotta let me travel, I wanna be there for the team."
"I needed to be at that game, regardless of if I was going to play or not, at least I needed to help mentor the backup tackles," Freeling said.
Not only did Georgia bring him, but on gameday, the offensive line coach approached Freeling and asked if he'd be able to play in an emergency. Freeling's response: "Yes, coach, please. Please let me go if I can." When Georgia went nowhere on its first two drives without its starting left tackle and trailed 10-0 in the second quarter, it was time to break glass.
Freeling played the rest of the game, 65 snaps, and helped his team rally to a 20-10 win. He spent most of the night blocking projected first-round pick (and another potential Lions target) Keldric Faulk -- his toughest matchup all season, Freeling said -- plus likely Day 2 pick Keyron Crawford, and did not allow a single QB pressure.
"Speaks to his toughness and competitiveness, and kind of feels Dan Campbell-y, to me," said Jeremiah. "So that one would make a lot of sense (for the Lions)."
It was Jeremiah who said this week that the Lions love Alabama OT Kadyn Proctor so much that No. 17 is his "absolute floor." Proctor is a behemoth with massive upside if he hits (and real downside if he doesn't). Maybe he really is the Lions' guy. Or maybe it's a smokescreen from their camp to obscure their interest in a tackle like Freeling. Has Holmes ever tipped his hand on his top picks?
It's more likely than not that Freeling is gone before the Lions are on the clock. But in a draft where the top two offensive tackles seem pretty clear in Miami's Francis Mauigoa and Utah's Caleb Lomu and where as many as five others could go in the first round, it's not infeasible that Freeling could slide toward No. 17. The Lions built a Super Bowl contender on the strength of their offensive line before it regressed last season. If you ask Freeling, "it’s the most special position on the field."
"Just because you get to play as five other guys as one," he said. "And we might not get the credit all the time, but when you see a big run, we block everything perfectly, we can all look at each other and say, 'We did that."
Freeling felt like he was playing his best ball at the end of last season, in games that got bigger each week. Georgia ultimately went down swinging in the College Football Playoff against Ole Miss. Freeling's growth was real, but he said his only takeaway from the season is "that I didn’t win the national championship that I wanted to."
"I wish had a couple more games," he said, "because I wanted all the smoke."
Maybe he can come find it in Detroit.
