It’s truly a joy to begin another season of Detroit Lions game film review. Thursday night’s exhibition loss in Cincinnati to the Bengals was our first taste of actual, competitive Lions football in over seven months. Sure, the outcome of the game doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but for the players who suited up, it was a critical evaluation tool and game experience outside of practice.
The overall film review is still in progress, but I did complete the player spotlights I hoped to accomplish.
I focused on the three offensive linemen who started the game who could/should be expected to carry those roles into the regular season — at least the beginning of the season. That would be right tackle Blake Miller, right guard Christian Mahogany and center Seth McLaughlin. All three played the entire first half together, with 39 official snaps but also five extra plays that were negated by penalties. I scored those, too. There were 28 total passes and 16 runs.
The methodology is pretty straightforward: wins earn a plus, losses earn a minus. Not every play results in a plus or minus.
Seth McLaughlin, center
McLaughlin is thrust into the starting lineup by default at this point of the offseason. Starter Cade Mays is out for 8-10 weeks with a broken wrist. Veteran Juice Scruggs hasn’t practiced in several days while dealing with an undisclosed soft tissue injury. That left McLaughlin as the starter in Cincinnati, relieved in the second half by Michael Niese.
The second-year center from Ohio State (and Alabama) got off to a hot start against his 2025 club. McLaughlin spent his rookie campaign on the Bengals’ I.R. as he recovered from a torn Achilles suffered in November of his final season with the Buckeyes.
On Detroit’s opening drive, McLaughlin earned three plusses. All came in pass protection. Most notable was a savvy pickup on a line shift. The Bengals frequently aligned with no nose tackle directly over McLaughlin, which made his initial vision and pre-snap read important. He wound up having just two errors in that regard in the game, and one of those he recovered well enough to earn a draw.
On Josh Dobbs’ first series at quarterback, Detroit’s fourth possession, McLaughlin earned his lone minus in pass protection. Dobbs was sacked on the play after the young center couldn’t latch onto Bengasl DT Kris Jenkins. On that play, the Bengals brought A-gap pressure from the second level and overwhelmed the entire interior with a well-designed loop that beat McLaughlin on a 3rd-and-10. Left tackle Larry Borom was also beaten soundly on the play, not allowing Dobbs any chance to escape Jenkins.
The run game wasn’t as kind for McLaughlin. He had his positive moments, but wasn’t able to create much movement on the designed interior runs.
One plus in the pass game came on a textbook “look for work” situation, slamming a Bengal to the turf just after Mahogany had broken contact with him. It’s the kind of violent chip-in block the Lions have lacked at center since Frank Ragnow was healthy.
Total tally: 11 plus (8 pass, 3 run), 4 minus (1 pass, 3 run)
Christian Mahogany, left guard
Detroit’s only returning OL starter in the same position as 2025, Mahogany oddly performed better against Cincinnati’s starting DL than he did versus the reserves. In the two drives in which the Bengals starters were on the field, Mahogany picked up five plusses and one minus. He earned just three more plusses against six minuses the rest of the way, including a holding penalty and an illegal man downfield infraction that are automatic minuses. No. 73 was guilty of both fouls, though anyone watching a Packers or 49ers game in recent years has seen more egregious illegal downfield violations ignored.
As has been the case in his first two seasons in Detroit, Mahogany was at his best when firing off the line and attacking a lineman in direct reach. Even in pass protection, Mahogany is more proactively aggressive than many guards. Grip strength was a definite plus for Mahogany; once he latched on, the rep was largely over for the defender and in Detroit’s favor.
Mahogany did allow a pressure, earning his lone non-penalty minus in pass protection on a play where he stayed with a mark a count too long on a rush where his assignment was a block pass-off from LT Larry Borom, or at least it appeared to be that case.
Total tally: 8 plus (5 pass, 3 run), 6 minus (2 pass, 4 run)
Blake Miller, right tackle
In his first professional action against someone in a different uniform, Miller continued what has been a largely positive performance pockmarked with some occasional unsavory losses. No. 76 earned a plus on his very first snap, a nice wall-off on a designed rollout by QB Luke Altmyer. He quickly picked up his first minus, also in pass protection, losing on a rush to his inside shoulder that pressured Altmyer into a dump pass to RB Jacob Saylors.
Miller settled in nicely after that, earning nothing but plusses on Detroit’s next three possessions (10 total plays). The rookie’s quick feet and excellent balance proved effective against both Cincinnati’s first-string and second-string, notably a lockdown on Boye Mafe.
The team’s fifth possession, the second with Dobbs at the controls, was Miller’s worst. He earned minuses on a run and a pass, ceding a pressure on Dobbs. The run play resulted in a loss of four, and Miller was lost from the get-go on that one. Miller rebounded with a plus on Detroit’s next possession, a one-play designed trap run that set up a field goal at the end of the half.
Total tally: 8 plus (5 pass, 3 run), 4 minus (2 pass, 2 run)
