A comprehensive roadmap for the Detroit Lions' 2025 offseason

Allen Park — The Detroit Lions’ 2024 season ended prematurely. With that came a period of mourning. For some, the melancholy has lasted longer, but the team’s front office isn’t afforded the luxury.

“It happened and you can’t sulk it back,” general manager Brad Holmes said days after the team’s playoff loss to Washington. “You can’t mope a reversal of the unfortunate outcome, so there’s literally nothing else to do but pick yourself up and get back to work. There is nothing else to do, so that’s what we’re going to do. That’s what we will do, and the process has already started.”

Holmes and his staff can’t afford to linger on the past. They have to prepare for the future. The next few months are the heart of the roster-building process, the reshaping of the team for the season ahead.

As I’ve done in recent years, let’s work our way through what the next few months look like through Holmes’ lens — the decisions he faces that will determine how differently the Lions will look when they open training camp in late July.

Roster cuts

Let me share a personal preference upfront: I’m not going to offer opinions on whether the Lions should cut any player. I’ll provide the facts about production, contracts and cap hits, highlighting why the team might choose to part ways.

Cutting veterans is one of the earliest steps of the offseason process. When Holmes arrived in 2021, he aggressively purged the roster of talent acquired by the previous regime. Within the first three months, the GM released Christian Jones, Jesse James, Justin Coleman, Joe Dahl, Danny Shelton, Desmond Trufant, Chase Daniel and Kerryon Johnson. Linebacker Jamie Collins survived the initial culling, but he was gone before October.

The annual cuts have been less aggressive since that initial wave. Each of the past three offseasons has brought one major cap casualty. In 2022, it was Trey Flowers. The following offseason, Michael Brockers. And last year, it was Tracy Walker, unless you want to include cornerback Cam Sutton, who forced the team’s hand with off-field issues.

The Lions don’t have to do anything this year, but the GM will have some decisions to weigh. Let’s look at them individually, in alphabetical order.

Graham Glasgow

• 2025 cap hit: $7.4 million

• Dead money remaining: $5.3 million

• Potential savings: $2.1 million

A third-round pick for the Lions in 2016, Glasgow returned to Detroit in 2023 after a three-year stint in Denver. Signed to a relatively low-cost, one-year deal, he initially projected as a three-position backup but ended up starting 15 games. The performance earned him a three-year, $20 million extension last offseason.

However, Glasgow struggled to repeat his 2023 success after being shifted to the left side to accommodate the addition of Kevin Zeitler. For the second straight season, Glasgow allowed more than 30 pressures, including 13 sacks and QB hits. But unlike 2023, he didn’t make up for the protection woes with stellar run blocking.

Christian Mahogany is ready to step into a starting role. The Lions already have a scheduled opening in the lineup, with Zeitler set to re-enter free agency. Initial perceptions are it’s an either/or conversation between Glasgow and Zeitler for 2025.