ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- Every week this year, Detroit Lions guard Larry Warford found a rhythm. Parts of it might have evolved based on how his body was feeling or what time of year it was, but for the most part, it was consistent.

It was, he said, what he had to find after realizing there needed to be improvements from the previous two seasons. That was all across the offensive line. It was also for himself.

"It was the same urgency every week," Warford said. "It wasn't like, 'Oh, I've got this guy, a certain player, and oh, shoot, I've got to step my game up where then I'd have this guy and he's just average.' I think I took the same approach to every week as best I could.

"I think that really helped and found what, throughout the week, helped me during the game, and then tried to implement that more in my routine and whatever wasn't working [to] try to weed it out."

Larry Warford emerged into the Lions' most consistent offensive lineman this season -- and he could be the best guard on the market this offseason. AP Photo/Duane Burleson

That routine gave Warford a weekly baseline from which to work. It offered him a level of stability. In return, he became Detroit's most consistent offensive lineman.

Now there's a chance he could be gone.

Unless the Lions are able to convince him otherwise and come up with a deal, Warford is two months away from testing the free-agent market. He might also be the best guard out there, which could net him a massive contract in Detroit or elsewhere.

For most of the season, though, he avoided thinking about that. He knew if he did, it could add stress to his game. That could have forced him to press. That would have made him play poorly, and it might have changed the bottom-line money he might get but doesn't think about.

"I honestly haven't thought one bit out of it," Warford said. "That's part of the routine. You see a lot of people get caught up in the business portion of the NFL, and that's just not for me. The business is the business. Whatever. That's not what I'm interested in.

"I just want to be better at what I do. I felt like if I had got caught up in contract year and 'Oh, I gotta do this,' that would then have placed the stresses on you that don't need to be in place. So contract year has not been on the forefront of my mind."

It won't be for the next few weeks, either. Warford plans on taking a break from football for at least a few weeks before he starts training again -- probably in Arizona with his mentor, LeCharles Bentley, where he has worked out every offseason.

It has been in those workouts with Bentley where Warford has made physical and mental improvements each year. Bentley's tutelage helped Warford become a Day 1 starter at right guard his rookie year out of Kentucky, a job he never relinquished except due to injury over the past four seasons. And it's Bentley who has helped make him a more consistent lineman throughout his four years in Detroit.

Warford said he isn't sure if this season put him in a good position for the future because "you never know what coaches want around the league," but he did play well. He knows there's areas of improvement -- he'll always say that -- but the market will be there.

He's not worried about the scheme, either, although there's no question Warford is a good run blocker.

"As offensive linemen, you want to be versatile in every facet," Warford said. "You want to be the consummate offensive lineman as far as schemes go. [Detroit is] a good scheme, but I want to be able to fit in any scheme.

"I want to be that type of player where I'm a versatile player. I'm not one-dimensional."

He wasn't that in Detroit over his first four seasons. Whether that continues -- or if it happens somewhere else -- is the next question for Warford after he's done relaxing. He has other things that require his attention. He's getting married on April 1 after proposing to his girlfriend, Emily, on Thanksgiving in 2015.

So he'll be busy before he even makes a decision about his future.

"I don't know much right now," Warford said. "There's going to be a lot of factors into what's going to go on in the future, but honestly I'm not thinking about it right now.

"Kind of just want to decompress for a while before I start thinking about the future."