Cade Mays Is Out 8–10 Weeks and Detroit Has No Clear Answer at Center

Starting center Cade Mays suffered a wrist injury Monday, and Dan Campbell confirmed he'll miss 8–10 weeks. That puts him out through at least mid-October, covering the stretch of early-season games where offensive line cohesion matters most. The depth chart at center lists Larry Borom, Devin Cochran, and Juice Scruggs as the in-house options, none of whom has established themselves as a reliable starter at the position.

This is the kind of problem that compounds. The Lions already came into camp carrying secondary injuries, a defensive tackle who left early, and a tight end situation that reversed course within days. Now the offensive line — the unit that makes Jared Goff's operation function and gives Jahmyr Gibbs his running lanes — has a hole at its most important interior spot. Coverage from Tuesday is already asking whether Detroit needs to go outside the building to find a center, which is a fair question with no obvious answer yet.

The Gibbs extension got done, the skill positions are healthy, and the receiving corps looks intact. But an offense that went 2–5 in close games last year doesn't have much margin for execution breakdowns, and a patchwork center situation is exactly the kind of thing that shows up in third-and-short and two-minute drill. My read: this is the most urgent football problem on the roster right now, ahead of the secondary, ahead of the backup quarterback question. The Lions have a few weeks before it becomes a Week 1 crisis. They should use them.