Detroit Is Set At Center, But Is A Backup Coming Into The Lions Den?

This isn’t what many were expecting at the end of the 2016 season. Travis Swanson had a horrible 2015, and many thought his time was limited in Detroit. During the 2016 draft, Detroit drafted center Graham Glasgow from the University of Michigan and it seemed to be the writing on the wall. Glasgow competed with Swanson to start during training camp and the pre-season. By week one though, Swanson was starting.

As the season went on, Swanson looked better and Glasgow did end up playing, just at the left guard position after out performing Laken Tomlinson. So for the guard edition of “Stay or Go” I put Graham Glasgow there as it looks like his career in Detroit at least, will be at the left guard spot. That just leaves Swanson alone at the position. While Glasgow did play center when Swanson went down, Detroit could keep just Swanson as the lone center and add an extra guard so if Swanson falls down again, Glasgow can move right over and the backup can start and the third string can move to backup.

Travis Swanson

While Swanson technically had a worse year in 2016 compared to 2015, getting three penalties instead of two and allowing half a sack more, Swanson looked better. You could say having Graham Glasgow at his left instead of Laken Tomlinson helped, but Swanson did deal with a concussion that knocked him out for the final five games, so maybe things could have turned out worse. For those 12 games he started though, Swanson just seemed to be a better center than he was in 2015.

Decision: Stay

Possible Additions

Ryan Wendell

John Sullivan

JC Tretter

Brian Schwenke

Cameron Tom, Southern Mississippi

Isaac Asiata, Utah

Riley Sorenson, Washington State

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