Three years after losing Graham Glasgow in free agency, the Lions intend to bring him back. The veteran interior offensive lineman is signing with his former team Thursday, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.
The Lions drafted Glasgow in the 2016 third round but lost him to the Broncos’ four-year, $44MM deal in 2020. Detroit is planning to sign Glasgow to a one-year deal worth up to $4.5MM. The Broncos made Glasgow a cap casualty late last week.
Detroit features one of the league’s better O-lines this time around. Ex-Glasgow teammates Taylor Decker and Frank Ragnow remain in place, while 2020 third-rounder Jonah Jackson joins them as a locked-in starter. Penei Sewell is also a cornerstone piece up front for Detroit. Evan Brown, who has played both guard and center, is a free agent. And Halapoulivaati Vaitai missed most of last season, clouding his future with the team.
This contract would point to Glasgow reprising the role he began last season with: inside swingman. The Broncos used Glasgow as a Week 1 starter in 2021 and ’22, but Quinn Meinerz — Glasgow’s 2021 injury replacement — kept Denver’s first-string right guard gig this year. Glasgow, however, saw extensive run in replacing both Meinerz and center Lloyd Cushenberry. Glasgow, 30, ended up starting 13 games for the Broncos last season. Pro Football Focus rated Glasgow as the No. 27 overall center last season
In Detroit, Glasgow worked as a four-year starter. The Lions mostly used him at guard but played him at center during stretches of his rookie-contract run as well. The Lions can save $6.5MM by releasing Vaitai, who missed all of last season due to injury. That number rises a bit if Vaitai is designated as a post-June 1 cut.
Glasgow started 58 games for the Lions from 2016-19, creating a nice market. After the Broncos shed that deal from their payroll ahead of its final year, the Michigan alum will try and carve out a spot for his first NFL team.
Great news and nice to see this reunion! Good signing by the Lions as they’re getting good value, filling a void and creating cap space as this likely means Vaitai will not be brought back.
I don’t think they’ll release vaitai.. I’d guess glas will be the Swiss Army knife backup at both guards and center
I hope this means they release Vaitai. He gets paid way too much money to sit on the IR all season. Glad to have Glasgow back.
One of countless guys we’ve brought in (especially and usually FA’s), that follow the winning recipe in Detroit; sign for more than you’re worth, for longer than you should be signed for, then feign injury, collect the irresponsibly large guaranteed $$$$’s from the contract, then get released. Glasgow on a 1 year deal though is responsible, and logical, so hopefully it works out for both; he plays great, gets a new contract next year and we benefit from his great play.
Glasgow should’ve never been able to leave Detroit. They should’ve paid him instead of giving Vaitai a ridiculous, undeserved contract.
Vaitai has missed 25 of 50 possible games as a Lion. As a post June 1 cut, he’ll save $9.5M in cap space, but have $3M of dead cap hits for 2023 and 2024. He has cost $26M against the cap in his 3 years in Detroit. Numbers courtesy of overthecap.com
Vaitai missed the entire season.