The Detroit Lions lost a key piece to their offensive line recently, as starting center Frank Ragnow announced his retirement after seven seasons. The 29-year-old started 96 games in his career, was selected to four Pro Bowls, and also earned three second-team All-Pro nods.
Ragnow’s retirement leaves a gaping hole on the interior of Detroit’s offensive line. With Kevin Zeitler departing in free agency and Graham Glasgow fighting for a starting role along with Ragnow calling it a career, there’s a chance the Lions will have three new starters on the unit in 2025.
Detroit has a few in-house candidates who could replace Ragnow, but NFL.com’s Gennaro Filice predicts general manager Brad Holmes will trade for Los Angeles Rams center Beaux Limmer to serve as a starter in John Morton’s offense.
Limmer acquitted himself pretty well in Year 1, particularly as a run blocker. Detroit’s rise has been fueled in a big way by a beastly offensive front, so the Lions can’t leave anything to chance with this unit. And Brad Holmes has already established a fruitful trading relationship with former boss Les Snead, so it’s not hard to imagine these two working out a deal here.
Limmer started 14 games for the Rams in his rookie campaign last year, allowing one sack and 21 quarterback pressures with a 66.3 run-blocking grade. However, he struggled with penalties and didn’t play well in Los Angeles’ postseason loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, which led to the team signing Coleman Shelton as the new starting center.
With Limmer getting demoted, there’s a chance the Rams could trade him. Detroit would be a logical landing spot in that case, as Limmer would immediately step in as the starting center and provide adequate play. Though it would be hard for the 23-year-old to fill the void Ragnow left, he has a ton of promise and showed glimpses of excellence during his rookie year in 2024.
Additionally, Limmer is on a cheap deal, and a Day 3 pick should be enough to get a deal done with the Rams. The Arkansas product still needs to improve in pass protection and clean up the penalties, but trading for Limmer to be the starting center for the 2025 season and years to come would be a savvy move by Holmes.
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