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Things have been trending this way since the Detroit Lions failed to extend him last offseason, but it appears Graham Glasgow is preparing to play elsewhere in 2020.
Glasgow spoke with Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press earlier this week and made it quite clear he’s not expecting to re-sign a deal with the Lions this free agency period. Instead, he’s expecting to play elsewhere in 2020.
“I mean, yeah. That’s the way it seems,” he told Birkett.
Despite four seasons of consistent, solid play at all three interior offensive line positions, the Lions have not shown much interest in keeping Glasgow—a former third-round pick of general manager Bob Quinn—in the starting lineup. Even with his well above-average play in 2019, Detroit opted to rotate Glasgow in and out of the lineup with veteran Kenny Wiggins.
And even now, as the legal tampering period is now less than a week away, the Lions haven’t given any indication to Glasgow that they’d like him back.
“Haven’t really heard too much from the Lions, so we’re just approaching it like that,” Glasgow said.
For Glasgow, it’s a bittersweet moment. On one hand, he’s played football in this state since college and has grown a nice rapport with his teammates in the locker room. On the other hand, this is an opportunity for a huge payday and a new start with a different franchise.
“I’ve been here for almost about a decade now and it’s awesome and I really, really like the guys in the locker room and I think we have a good team and a good group of guys. So in that regards, it sucks,” Glasgow said. “But you don’t play football forever, so I think that being able to go somewhere else and make some money is an exciting thing.”
As for the Lions, they will have to be active in replacing Glasgow. Veterans Oday Aboushi and Kenny Wiggins are also facing free agency next week, and Detroit doesn’t have a lot of in-house options at the moment. Though they added Joshua Garnett already this offseason, the former first-round pick has dealt with injuries his entire career and just start 11 games in the NFL.