Dan Campbell took the blame for Detroit’s disappointing 2025 season. Then he said something telling about his star lineman: he wants to make players uncomfortable. That’s where Penei Sewell comes in.
Sewell is moving from right tackle to left tackle, and it’s not a small adjustment. He told ESPN’s Eric Woodyard that flipping his stance and his entire approach is still a work in progress. “It’s just different,” he said. “You’re switching your whole stance and everything, but it is what it is. Right now, it’s still kind of early, so I’m just focusing on myself.”
The weird part? Even in the middle of a position change, Sewell remains the gold standard at tackle. ESPN polled execs, coaches, and scouts around the league, and they ranked him No. 1 overall at the position. One veteran defensive coach called him “the most complete player at this stage—physical, powerful, and smart.” An NFC executive put it more bluntly: “He has the most ‘f— you’ attitude plays in the league. He always brings the juice.”
But here’s where the optimism bumps into reality. Sewell’s pass-block win rate dipped to 89.6% last season, his lowest mark since his rookie year in 2021. And not everyone is sold on him at left tackle. One coordinator raised a concern that’s been floating around for a while: “He’s got short arms, and he doesn’t win a lot in pass protection against real guys.”
That criticism doesn’t sit well with everyone who’s watched him work. His supporters argue that his run-blocking dominance more than makes up for any perceived weakness in pass pro, and that his overall impact on the Lions’ offense is still unmatched. But the move to left tackle puts a spotlight on that part of his game like never before.
Campbell, for his part, isn’t hedging. He told Albert Breer that the coaching staff is fully behind Sewell’s transition. “He’s ready to do that,” Campbell said. No qualifiers, no buts.
The Lions are betting that Sewell can handle the switch and still be the league’s best tackle. And honestly, they don’t have much of a choice. If they want to climb back to the top of the NFC North, their offensive line needs to be the kind of unit that controls games. Sewell is the centerpiece of that plan. Whether he can be that guy on the left side is the question no one has a definitive answer to yet.
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