In this installment of our Detroit Lions 2026 training camp preview series, we examine the Lions’ offensive tackle room, speculate on current and future roles, and discuss how many players from this group could make the 53-man roster.
Previous training camp previews:
Roster construction
Under the Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell regime, the Lions have consistently added offensive linemen as the season progresses. While they typically begin each season with eight to 10 offensive linemen, they’ve consistently finished with 10 or 11 on the active roster.
Let’s take a look at what they’ve done at offensive tackle in the previous five seasons:
2021: Opened with three offensive tackles (Penei Sewell, Taylor Decker, and Matt Nelson), but finished with four (Will Holden).
2022: Opened with three OTs (Sewell, Decker, and Nelson), and finished with four (Dan Skipper).
2023: Opened with three OTs (Sewell, Decker, and Nelson), and finished with four (Skipper).
2024: Opened and finished with four OTs (Sewell, Decker, Skipper, and Giovanni Manu).
2025: Opened and finished with three OTs (Sewell, Decker, and Manu; Manu was placed on IR in Week 5 and replaced by Skipper).
An offseason of change
After five seasons of having Sewell and Decker bookending the offensive line, the Lions released Decker after a complicated early portion of the offseason. Adding to the turnover at offensive tackle, Dan Skipper—who had been OT3 or OT4 over the last four seasons—retired and joined the Lions coaching staff as an offensive assistant.
As a result of these offseason moves, the Lions made three major decisions. First, they decided to move Sewell to left tackle—where he played full time in college and sporadically in the NFL—then they quickly signed Michigan native and NFL veteran Larry Borom on the opening day of free agency, and the final big move was selecting Clemson right tackle Blake Miller with pick No. 17 in the first round of the NFL Draft.
Additionally, the Lions are expected to get Giovanni Manu back on the field during training camp after an early-season injury sidelined him for the majority of 2025, and they re-signed practice squader Devin Cochran.
The battleground
Will Blake Miller win the starting RT job?
The Lions have said they will let Miller and Borom battle it out for the starting right tackle position, and during spring practices they held true to their word, rotating each player through the first and second team. The Lions aren’t afraid to start a rookie if he earns the job, and historically, this regime’s first-round picks tend to start from the jump.
Miller is loaded with more experience than the average rookie, having started 54 games in college, as well as possessing an ideal combination of height (6-foot-7), length (34.25-inch arm length), strength (32 reps on bench press), and athleticism (RAS: 9.9). He was widely considered the most NFL-ready tackle in this draft class.
While Miller and Borom will indeed battle it out for the starting right tackle position in training camp, reading between the lines at spring practices gives a strong indication that the Lions are expecting Miller to win the job; Miller took every spring practice rep at right tackle, while Borom split his time between the right and left sides—a more typical cross-training style that you see with a swing OT3.
What will Borom’s role be?
Borom has a solid history of playing right tackle in the NFL, but he also has starting experience at left tackle and guard. While he’ll get a chance to compete, it appears likely that he is headed for a swing OT3 role, as well as a potential OL6 role in jumbo sets.
If Borom can continue his play from the second half of last season (in Miami), he should be considered an upgrade to the Lions OT3 position. His ability to play on both sides of the line, as well as guard in a pinch, gives the Lions a lot of flexibility. He’s also likely to assume the Lions OL6 position, where he’ll “report” as an eligible offensive lineman that lines up in an inline tight end role when the Lions want to add more blocking bulk and power.
Is this a make-or-break training camp for Giovanni Manu?
After an unmemorable rookie season, followed by a sophomore campaign that saw him initially win the OT3 role out of training camp, only to land on injured reserve after four games and never return, Manu could be entering a make-or-break training camp in 2025.
The section on roster construction tells the story here. In 2025, Manu was the third and final tackle on the roster for the first month of the season. In 2024, the Lions kept four tackles, but only kept three active on game day, with Manu acting as a weekly healthy scratch. In the previous three seasons, only three offensive tackles made the initial roster under this regime.
With Sewell, Miller, and Borom looking solid in roles, Manu will either need to make significant improvement in his development to challenge for the OT3 role, or show enough promise that he forces the Lions to break from their typical roster construction plans and keep an OT4. That’s a tough road.
Cross-training OTs
One of the reasons the Lions have previously kept only three offensive tackles on the active roster is that they typically stash at least one pure tackle on the practice squad and cross-train some of their interior depth for emergencies. Colby Sorsdal, Miles Frazier, Mason Miller, and rookie Melvin Priestly all have extensive experience playing tackle in college and have previously, or are expected to, cross-train inside-and-out this training camp.
Sorsdal began his NFL career repping at right tackle, then kicked inside and cross-trained the previous two seasons. This spring, during OTAs and minicamp, Sorsdal was back at right tackle opposite Cochran on the third-team. Unless he can climb the depth chart in camp, Sorsdal will likely be positioning himself for a spot on the practice squad.
Frazier spent a season as LSU’s left tackle, but he has twice as much experience at guard, and it shouldn’t be surprising that he’s been mainly repping inside in Detroit. That being said, coach Dan Campbell has repeatedly said Frazier is being cross-trained at tackle for emergencies, and when you combine that with his overall upside—he’s expected to, at a minimum, win a reserve job on the active roster—his development could be yet another obstacle for Manu to overcome.