Detroit Lions second-round pick Tate Ratledge is already getting significant looks at center.
On Friday morning, Detroit Lions assistant general manager Ray Agnew mentioned that he was excited about second-round pick Tate Ratledge’s versatility on the interior offensive line.
“The first thing you see: this is a big man when you see him. He’s long, tall, big man. But you love the versatility of the player. He can play multiple positions inside, and the interior,” Agnew said.
A couple hours later, Lions media saw exactly what he meant by that, as Ratledge began 11-on-11 walkthroughs as the team’s starting center. Later, he would kick over to right guard, with undrafted rookie Leif Fautanu taking over center duties. But it’s probably fair to say that during the team’s only 11-on-11 drills, a slight majority of Ratledge’s playing time was at center.
At Georgia, Ratledge almost exclusively played at right guard. In his three years as a starter, he took 2,070 snaps on offense—2,066 were at right guard, with the other four at left guard. However, Ratledge was cross-trained everywhere at Georgia, including regularly taking center reps in practice. Still, center has its own challenges—particularly when he’s also learning an entirely new playbook.
“You gotta say a lot more. You gotta know the safety rotation, stuff like that, know where the point’s going,” Ratledge said. “At guard, most of the time, you’re listening to the center tell you where to go. At center, like I said, you’re telling everybody else where to go.”
It’s unclear where the long-term plan is for Ratledge, as the Lions have an All-Pro level starter in Frank Ragnow at center, but a vacancy at each guard position. Agnew pointed out that he believes both Ratledge and fifth-round pick Miles Frazier are smart enough players to handle the extra mental work of playing several positions.
“These guys, you understand how much these guys can do mentally when you go through the (scouting) process, and you vet them, and you find out how much they can handle mentally,” Agnew said. “Both of those guys can handle all of it. We feel good about that.”
During Friday’s practice, Frazier shifted between right guard and right tackle for the first portion of practice. At LSU , Frazier played all over the offensive line, logging starts at every position other than center.
The pair of rookie offensive linemen have been linked since before they were Lions. As part of their pre-draft preparation, both trained with offensive line guru Duke Manyweather and quickly became close. Now they’re already motivating each other as Lions.
“Tate is my dog,” Frazier said. “Just learning the plays together, being in the same room, I feel like we both could push each other. Him playing center and guard. Me playing guard and tackle.”