It's not just longtime left tackle Taylor Decker who's mulling retirement on the Lions' once-dominant offensive line. Does Graham Glasgow intend to play next season, either here or elsewhere?
"We'll see," Glasgow responded Monday as he cleaned out his locker in Allen Park for perhaps the final time.
Glasgow brought with him a few keepsakes, like the wooden nameplate above his stall and a giant black garbage bag full of signed jerseys from his teammates. The one from Penei Sewell included a message scrawled on the back in which Sewell called Glasgow "the funniest dude I've ever met!" Glasgow's mustache often frames a smirk. He's a hit in the Lions' offensive line room with his dry, quick-witted humor. He's just not as quick on the field as he used to be.
10 years in the NFL takes a toll, as Decker could attest. The Big Ten big men arrived in the Lions' 2016 draft class, Decker in the first round from Ohio State, Glasgow in the third from Michigan. They've played seven seasons together in Detroit, enduring painful lows under Matt Patricia and unprecedented highs under Dan Campbell, nearly helping the Lions to the Super Bowl in 2023. Both have battled their bodies in recent years, with Glasgow slowed by an ankle injury at the end of last season and a knee injury at the end of this one.
But where Decker is still playing what he considers the best football of his career -- weighing retirement for his family as much as himself -- Glasgow, who has young children of his own, is pretty clearly on the decline. Among NFL linemen who logged at least 50 percent of their team's offensive snaps, Glasgow ranked 29th out of 32 centers this year and 47th out of 59 guards last year, per PFF. He was as faulty in the trenches as anyone this season for the Lions, who never consistently established the run and lost their identity in the process.
It should be said that Glasgow has been dealt a difficult hand two years in a row. First he shifted from right guard to left to accommodate Kevin Zeitler, which is more difficult than it sounds, then stepped in at center for Frank Ragnow, whose shoes were impossible to fill. He signed a three-year, $20 million contract with the Lions to play right guard, where he played very well for them in 2023, and hasn't played a snap at the position since.
Still, Glasgow hasn't quite risen to the challenge elsewhere, and Tate Ratledge looks like a mainstay at right guard. It's hard to envision the Lions bringing Glasgow back with an $8.5 million cap hit in the final year of his deal, especially when they could save about $5.5 million by cutting him. Of this, Glasgow seems to be keenly aware.
Asked about his future in the NFL, he said, "I’m still under contract for next year, so unless that changes, I’m a Detroit Lion. But, you know, yeah, I guess, I don’t know." He plans to spend his offseason "lifting, playing video games, hanging out with my family, getting healthy and then seeing where we’re at."
If the Lions do cut Glasgow, who turns 34 this summer, it's just as hard to envision him playing anywhere else. He returned to Detroit after three years in Denver for another chance to play with Decker and Frank Ragnow, two of his closest friends in the game. With swing tackle Dan Skipper, yet another member of the old guard up front, also on the verge of retirement, it feels like a natural time for Glasgow to call it a career; and a pretty good one, at that.
The outlook could change, of course, if Decker opts to return, if Ragnow makes an actual comeback, if the Lions keep Glasgow under contract, if he gets a chance to play his primary position. Each one of those conditions feels unlikely on its own; together, all but impossible.
Glasgow signed a jersey himself on Monday for Ratledge, the rookie who said that "Graham meant more to me this year than anybody has my whole career." Whenever Ratledge had a question on assignments or techniques, Glasgow had an answer, a smart and willing mentor.
"Anytime I was struggling, that’s a guy that I went to," Ratledge said. "He kind of took me under his wing, so that meant a lot to me."
When Glasgow was asked about collecting and signing jerseys, he said that "in some situations you don't know who's going to be here next year. In a lot of cases maybe you’re around these guys for three years, four years, and you don’t know who will be here anymore."
That he took a jersey from Sewell, and planned to leave one with Ratledge, probably says all you need to know. Those guys will be back. After a decade and nearly 10,000 snaps in the league, Glasgow seems to know that he's done.