Could Seth McLaughlin save Lions at center?

"You hate it," said Dan Campbell, for him and for us. "It sucks," said Jared Goff.

Cade Mays will miss the first several weeks of the season with a broken bone in his wrist, throwing the Lions' rebuilt offensive line off its axis.

"Yeah, it just stinks," said Goff, "but I know he'll work his way back here and be ready to go at some point."

Seth McLaughlin, you're up. With Mays on the shelf and veteran Juice Scruggs working his way back from a soft-tissue injury, Detroit's starting center, right now, is a second-year pro who spent last season on the Bengals' practice squad and signed a reserve/futures contract with the Lions this offseason. McLaughlin took all the snaps with the first-team offense in Monday's practice.

"I'm excited for the opportunity," said McLaughlin. "It’s not always exciting how you get the opportunity, but going to try to make the most of it."

Once Scruggs returns, it will be a two-man battle over the next several weeks for a crucial job in a complex offense.

"Those are the guys, that’s why they’re here," Campbell said before Monday's practice.

In team drills Monday, the starting offensive line ran hot and cold. Jahmyr Gibbs was stuffed on his first run by corner Rock Ya-Sin. A couple plays later, Gibbs gained a nice chunk up the middle.

In the first red zone period, Gibbs took his first carry for a touchdown after shaking Nick Whiteside out of his cleats with a stop-and-go move in the backfield. On the next snap, Alim McNeill and Aidan Hutchinson both got pressure for a likely sack of Goff, who stepped up anyway and was picked off on a pass over the middle that was tipped near the goal line.

Goff threw touchdowns on the next two snaps. The first one went to Sam LaPorta in the flat, with LaPorta beating Devin White to the pylon. The second went to a wide-open Brock Wright who was streaking across the back of the end zone. Goff had all the time he needed to let the latter play develop.

So it went for most of the day, "good plays, bad plays, plays you want back," said McLaughlin. "It was really just getting the first one under my belt and keep going and getting better. There’s definitely a lot of stuff to clean up and a lot of good stuff out there, too."

"I thought he did a good job," said Goff. "Stepped in there nicely and didn’t miss much of a beat. Mentally, obviously, did a good job. (The communication) was really good."

Another segment of team drills started with Goff getting picked on a pass over the middle to Amon-Ra St. Brown that was tipped by safety Chuck Clark into the hands of Whiteside. It ended with Goff hitting St. Brown for a touchdown on a fade where St. Brown beat Whiteside at the line and Goff had plenty of time to drop a pass into the bucket.

"Being in the huddle with Jared, hearing how he goes through the plays and how his cadences are, it’s definitely an adjustment period, but the operation was pretty smooth today," said McLaughlin. "Every quarterback you have to work with to get their verbiage down and their speed in the huddle, so it’s really just about getting those reps."

That segment also featured a would-be sack by Hutchinson coming around the right edge, a long completion to LaPorta who made a leaping grab through coverage, a nifty run up the middle Jacob Saylors -- much to the approval of runnings back coach Tashard Choice -- followed by a run stuff at the line by Jack Campbell.

The Lions signed Mays to a three-year, $25 million contract to fix one of the biggest flaws of last year's team. Now they're searching for a new solution, at least until Mays can return. Nearly two years removed from tearing his Achilles at Ohio State, "I finally feel 100 percent (again)," said McLaughlin.

McLaughlin is an intriguing player. He's a bit undersized for his position, especially by the Lions' standards, at 6'4, 304 lbs. He lacks ideal length. Mays, by comparison, is 6'6, 325 lbs. But McLaughlin hasn't let that stop him before. In fact, he's seized each opportunity in front of him.

McLaughlin started his college career at Alabama, where he took over the starting center job as a sophomore. He eventually transferred to Ohio State and won the Rimington Trophy as the best center in the nation in 2024 and was projected to be taken in the middle rounds of the 2025 draft prior to his Achilles injury.

Even after the injury, most experts still viewed him one of the top centers in the class. He was described by NFL.com's Lance Zierlein as a "highly intelligent center" with "the makeup and consistency to make it in the league." He wound up going undrafted. It was a surprise to McLaughlin, but not a shock. He was considered one of the top UDFAs available when he signed with the Bengals.

"It was definitely unfortunate timing for an injury like that, but this is how I like it," said McLaughlin. "I was the lowest-ranked recruit in my class going to Bama, had to grind from the bottom of the depth chart, and I haven’t been given anything. I’ve tried to earn my opportunities here just like I have everywhere I’ve been."

The recovery from a torn Achilles can be arduous. McLaughlin didn't get cleared until eight months after the injury and "I didn’t really feel comfortable actually doing my job until about a year out, and that was late November of last season," he said. "I didn’t feel good playing football until about last November."

After a practice squad year with the Bengals, it was clear to McLaughlin that "the opportunity in Cincinnati wasn’t there." He said he and his agent went into the offseason "evaluating where I’d fit in best," and the Lions, they decided, made the most sense. He signed his futures deal with Detroit two days after the team's season finale.

"Really, it was just the best fit on offense," he said. "We evaluated a bunch of teams when that window opened and they were really excited about me, they jumped on the opportunity when they heard my name, so it’s kind of like, where do you feel most wanted? And we felt like that was here."

Mentally, McLaughlin has a lot of work to do in Detroit's offense, and not a lot of time to do it. Monday was his first time snapping to Goff. He said offensive line coach Hank Fraley, a former center himself, has been "really, really helpful when it comes to setting the ID’s. We don’t have an easy offense from the center position, and he’s really helped teach me the offense."

Physically, McLaughlin feels like he did in 2024, which is to say he "feels normal."

"I’m moving around way better," he said, "Like, I’m back to where I was, and I’m still trying to improve and get better from where I was."

That's the aim for McLaughlin over the next few weeks, with a starting job suddenly up for grabs in Detroit's offense.

"There's a long way to go," he said, "and excited to keep pursuing that."