The Detroit Lions options for replacing injured Taylor Decker vs the Texans if the veteran LT can’t play
The Detroit Lions appear poised to overcome some more injury-related adversity in the team’s Week 10 trip to Houston. Left tackle Taylor Decker is unlikely to play for Detroit in the Sunday night game after not practicing all week with a shoulder injury.
“I don’t see him practicing today,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said of Decker in his Friday morning press conference. “It’s about how he heals up. I don’t feel like this is something major, but we need to really see how he feels overthe next 48 hours.”
That’s not a promising sign for Decker’s availability against the Texans. If Decker is indeed out, the Lions lose a bedrock starter at left tackle for a game against one of the more aggressive defenses in the league.
Any Decker absence would require some serious scrambling for the Lions offensive line. With both starting guards, Graham Glasgow and Kevin Zeitler, being exclusively interior players, that means one of the depth tackles would get the nod.
Moving Penei Sewell from right to left
Switching All-Pro right tackle Penei Sewell from his normal side to the left is one potential solution. It’s what the Lions did in Weeks 2 and 3 of the 2023 season when Decker was sidelined.
It’s not a perfect solution. Sewell had two of his three lowest-graded games of his career by PFF while playing at left tackle. He hasn’t taken a known practice rep on the left side since the summer of 2022 other than those weeks, as well.
The Lions would need to decide if it’s worth getting weaker at right tackle by moving Sewell to the left side, where he hasn’t been as effective. Especially in run blocking, the Lions lean heavily on Sewell being the best right tackle in the league.
Dan Skipper
Typically the Lions extra tackle and 6th lineman in heavy formations, Skipper has been the only other tackle active on game days for the vast majority of the season. His preseason and training camp playing left tackle specifically was a mixed bag.
The 6-foot-9 Skipper tends to play too tall in pass protection, a real issue against more athletic and smaller pass rushers. That’s not a major issue against Houston, which tends to play bigger ends outside of Will Anderson — whose status for Sunday is up in the air due to injury, too.
Interestingly, Skipper has performed better at right tackle than left throughout his career in preseason and brief opportunities in the regular season. If Sewell kicks to the left side, Skipper’s relative struggles on the right side could be exacerbated.
Colby Sorsdal
Now in his second season, Sorsdal has been a healthy scratch most of 2024 and has only played on special teams when active. The 2023 fifth-round pick repped exclusively at right tackle in training camp and preseason, stepping in when Sewell needed rest or else repping with the second- and third-team offenses.
Sorsdal did not have an encouraging summer, consistently struggling with the speed of the Lions defense in practices and the speed of the game in preseason matchups against Pittsburgh and Kansas City. Simply out of familiarity with the right side, Sorsdal would likely be the starting option there if Sewell flips sides.
Jamarco Jones
The veteran Jones is on the Lions practice squad after joining the team in preseason. He played well at left tackle in the exhibition matchup against the Chiefs and does have some limited NFL regular-season experience starting on the left side, though he’s primarily played right guard in his stops with the Seahawks and Titans.
Jones also has some live-game experience playing as an extra tackle, which could come in handy if Skipper is required to play as a starter. If he avoids penalties, which has been a struggle for him going back to his college days, Jones is the most effective pass blocker of the reserve options.
Giovanni Manu
Manu was drafted in the fourth round with the implicit knowledge that he was not ready, nor would be ready to play in 2024. That’s been made clear by multiple coaching comments.
The giant Canadian collegian has been a healthy scratch all season and was one of PFF’s lowest-graded pass blockers in the preseason. Those low grades passed the eye/sniff test based on the very technically raw Manu from what we witnessed in practices, too. He should be considered an emergency-option only.
