Penei Sewell takes tips from Joe Thomas as he switches to LT

Hank Fraley has been trying for a while to get his former teammate Joe Thomas to Allen Park. They finally made it work last month. Thomas made a dual-purpose trip to the Lions' facility to talk to their offensive linemen and meet with their head chef about the high-end beef farm Thomas owns and operates in Wisconsin.

"We were fortunate to have him come through the building," said Penei Sewell. "Really grateful for the time that he spent with us."

Thomas might be the best offensive tackle in NFL history. Sewell might be the best offensive tackle in the NFL today. Thomas went more than 10 years without missing a snap at left tackle for the Browns. Sewell is moving to the left side this season, after spending his first five seasons with the Lions on the right.

The two titans had never met, but "he's somebody I looked up to playing this game," said Sewell. "When I was in high school he was the best, and now he’s a gold jacket."

Thomas' stop in Allen Park was a day before the Lions' second preseason game. He spoke with the offensive linemen and then ran the tackles (and anyone else who stuck around) through a film session.

"His message," said Sewell, "he speaks differently than your normal football player, let’s just say. A lot of anatomy talk when it comes to body positions, just a different way of looking at the game. I took some of the things that he was talking about, because we were able to watch film together, and now I’m just kind of applying it to my game."

Right after the meeting, Sewell was on the field with Fraley working on a couple of Thomas' teaching points/techniques. He declined to share specifics -- "I'ma gate-keep those ones," he said with a smile -- and pointed out that "some of the things that (Thomas) did as a player can only fit his body type." Thomas is slightly longer than Sewell, and was a good bit leaner as a player.

"But there’s also little things that we took a deep dive into, whether it’s feet, hands, and those things, just fixing those and tweaking them up a little bit," said Sewell.

"That’s the thing about Penei," said Lions offensive assistant and Sewell's former teammate Dan Skipper. "Is he the best tackle in football right now? No doubt. He also works like it. If you see something, he wants you to say something: 'Skip, watch this, what do you think of this?' Penei is not only elite genetically and talent and everything, he’s elite in his work ethic, football IQ, all those things that you don’t even think about."

Sewell did play left tackle in college, but his final season at Oregon was in 2019. (Wrap your head around that, for a second.) And while he spent his first eight games with the Lions at left tackle while Taylor Decker rehabbed an injury, he's played basically every snap of his career since at right tackle.

The Lions didn't really think twice about moving him back to the left this year, which allowed them to draft a plug-and-play right tackle in Blake Miller in the first round. The most challenging part of the transition, said Sewell, has been retraining "the body, flipping your legs, that’s about it."

"I mean, now, I’m a left tackle through and through. Whatever happened in the past is in the past," he said. "I’m here now."

The games will tell the true story, but sparring with Aidan Hutchinson throughout camp was certainly a good start. By all accounts, including that of the Lions' most important player, Sewell hasn't missed a beat.

"I think we take it for extreme granted that he was able to go over there and nothing really changed," said Jared Goff. "I think he loves it. Left is the premier position in football and I think he loves that pressure and loves being the guy at the point of attack in a lot of ways. But yeah, from whenever we did it in April to now, I don't feel like anything's fallen off from (his play on) the right side. If anything, he's only gotten better in this offseason. Yeah, we take it for granted, but we're lucky to have him."

Sewell is wired to dominate. He holds himself to an almost impossibly high standard, and thereby sets the standard in Detroit's offensive line room. He was named a first-team All-Pro for the third straight season last year, earned the highest PFF grade of any offensive lineman in the NFL, and said after the Lions went 9-8 and fell to last place in the NFC North, "This year alone, it wasn't my best ball."

"It was far from that. And I'm a firm believer that it starts with me up front. I believe that I'm gonna set the tone, I'm gonna make plays that typically O-linemen don't make, so this year was definitely a down year for me and we'll start with that," said Sewell. "Going into next season, that will be on my mind."

That helps explain Sewell's attitude toward making the move to left tackle. While others might afford themselves some grace amid such a position change, Sewell shuts down the very notion: "No grace," he said. "No grace. Because at the end of the day, I have a job to do. Everybody in this locker room, everybody upstairs in that coaching staff, they’re depending on me. I think if you’re giving yourself grace, you’re gonna give yourself excuses."

Sewell still marvels at Thomas. Ironman streaks are typically measured in consecutive starts. Thomas didn't miss a snap for the Browns until the 11th and final season of his career when he suffered a torn triceps, a stretch that comprised more than 10,000 plays.

"Really inspiring," said Sewell, who's missed just two games in his career. "And let’s call a spade a spade, they weren’t winning a lot of football games either. He could’ve easily just taken the easy route, but that just goes to show what kind of man he is and the type of football player he was. No matter what it is, he was going to be out there."

Thomas, by the way, is just an all-time athlete. In addition to offensive tackle, he played defensive end, tight end, fullback, placekicker and punter in high school, then went on to earn All-Big Ten honors in track and field at Wisconsin for his exploits in shot put and discuss while also being named All-American on the gridiron.

Which of Thomas' high school positions would Sewell most like to try in the NFL? "Punter," he smiled. Imagine the ball booming off his size-14 foot.

"I don't know about 'booming,'" said Sewell, "but I’d at least give it a little air time for the guys to get down there."

The Lions, meanwhile, will likely go as far this season as their offensive line takes them. It was the engine to their success in 2023 and 2024. When it stalled last year, the team regressed. It's got a couple new parts in Miller and center Cade Mays, whose spot will be filled by Juice Scruggs while Mays mends a fractured wrist. It might have a third at left guard, where Ben Bartch is pushing incumbent starter Christian Mahogany.

There's a chance that the only position unchanged from last season will be right guard, manned by Tate Ratledge.

The standard doesn't change.

"It’s a new year, new group of guys, but everything stays the same," said Sewell. "We’ve had a formula for years now, what it looks like and how we operate. So whoever came in, the new guys so far, they already know it. Now it’s just time to go out there and perform and actually go execute."