- Cade Mays broke a small bone in his wrist in a pass-protection rep and faces an eight-to-10-week layoff.
- That window covers Detroit’s first four games and reaches its Week 6 bye at the far end.
- Backup center Juice Scruggs is also down with a soft-tissue injury, leaving Seth McLaughlin the first-team reps.
- Detroit is +160 to win the NFC North, shortest of the four teams, and +1800 for Super Bowl LXI.
DETROIT – Cade Mays, the center Detroit signed this offseason to replace Frank Ragnow, broke a bone in his wrist at practice and is out for a significant stretch of the season, head coach Dan Campbell said Monday. Reporting from outside the building puts the layoff at eight to 10 weeks, which costs the free-agent signing at least the first four games.
A Blocking Rep, An Arm-Over, A Broken Wrist
Campbell described the injury as a fluke of pass protection. Mays was blocking, he said, when a defensive lineman “made an arm-over move and chopped at it” – “one of those freak things.” On the return, Campbell offered a window and no date: “He will be back in the season at some point. It will be down the road.”
The number came from outside the building. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, citing a source, put the damage at a small bone in the wrist and the recovery at eight to 10 weeks. ESPN carried the same window.
Mays, 27, got three years and $25 million to take the job. Ragnow retired abruptly in June 2025, and his November attempt to come out of retirement collapsed on a failed physical.
Mays spent four years in Carolina, appearing in 52 games with 27 starts at guard and center, and started 20 games over the past two seasons without allowing a sack. That last figure is the reason Detroit paid him: pass-protection reliability at the one interior spot that also sets the front and makes the line calls.
Seth McLaughlin Is Taking The First-Team Reps
McLaughlin ran with the starters Monday. He won the Rimington Trophy as college football’s best center at Ohio State in 2024, then went undrafted after tearing an Achilles that November. He spent all of last season on Cincinnati’s practice squad without an elevation and has yet to appear in an NFL game.
The depth behind him is thin by circumstance rather than design. Juice Scruggs, who came from Houston in the David Montgomery trade and has 37 games and 20 starts on his ledger, is the more experienced option and the obvious short-term answer. He is working through a soft-tissue injury that Campbell said needs a few more days.
Right guard Tate Ratledge played center early last offseason before moving to right guard full time, and is a third route, though sliding him inside opens a hole at guard and moves two players instead of one.
“We have options. It’s just the hand you’re dealt, and you move on,” Campbell said.
Running back Isiah Pacheco is separately dealing with an MCL sprain, which Campbell said should not keep him out of Week 1.
The Absence Covers Buffalo On A Short Week
Eight weeks from Monday lands in the first week of October. Ten weeks lands on the bye.
Detroit opens Sept. 13 against New Orleans at Ford Field, then plays at Buffalo on Thursday, Sept. 17. That is the game the timeline matters most for: four days between kickoffs, a road crowd, and a center making protection calls he has not made in a regular-season game for Detroit. The Jets visit Sept. 27, then come trips to Carolina on Oct. 4 and Arizona on Oct. 11 before the Week 6 bye.
At the short end of the range Mays is back for Arizona. At the long end he returns after the bye, which would put him on the field first against Green Bay on Oct. 25. Either way Detroit plays a stretch of its schedule with an interior line it has not repped together, and the center position is the one on the line where continuity does the most work.
Detroit Prices As The NFC North Favorite
The division market has Detroit out in front. On legal sports betting boards the Lions are +160 to win the NFC North, the shortest price of the four teams, ahead of Green Bay at +240, Chicago at +325 and Minnesota at +500.
The Lions are +1800 to win Super Bowl LXI and -220 to make the playoffs, a price that implies about 68.8%. Whether Detroit’s real chance of reaching the postseason without its starting center for a quarter of the season beats that number is the bet, not the number itself.
Detroit is the state’s only NFL team and a fixture on Michigan sports betting boards. Its division, playoff and Super Bowl prices across legal NFL betting all sit on an offensive line whose center is unsettled.
Detroit has the rest of camp and its preseason slate to settle the position before New Orleans arrives at Ford Field on Sept. 13.
