Evaluating the fits of 6 future starting OT options for the Detroit Lions in the 2026 draft
Allen Park — When considering how an NFL team will approach the upcoming draft, you have to look beyond the immediate roster needs. Each selection should be viewed as a four-year investment. Therefore, we must weigh the bigger picture with each possible choice.
Heading into the 2026 NFL draft, we’re going to take a position-by-position look at Detroit’s roster, focusing on areas where the team might add talent in the event. Today, we finish our preview series with the offensive tackles.
Current roster: Penei Sewell, Larry Borom, Giovanni Manu, Devin Cochran, Colby Sorsdal, Miles Frazier
Short-term need: 6/10
Long-term need: 9/10
Analysis: We collectively understood Taylor Decker’s time in Detroit was nearing an end, but no one expected the final chapter to play out the way it did.
After battling through a multi-faceted shoulder injury last year, and weighing retirement the first couple months of the offseason, Decker announced he was returning for another, potentially final season. Instead, the team asked him to take a pay cut, he declined and requested his release, accelerating the need for a replacement plan.
Detroit signed a stopgap solution in Borom, a metro Detroit native and Brother Rice alum who has logged more than 2,500 offensive snaps, including 11 starts at right tackle for Miami last season.
Borom’s effectiveness in 2025 was what drew the Lions in, and paves the way for Sewell to shift to the blindside.
In terms of depth, Dan Skipper retired and joined the coaching staff, making Manu the front-runner for the swing tackle job entering his third season, which has a make-or-break feel to it.
Long-term, the Lions still need answers. There’s an outside shot it’s Manu, but no one seems comfortable banking on that possibility. That puts the draft in the spotlight, where there’s more than a half-dozen tackle prospects with starting potential expected to go in the first two rounds.
It’s unclear how many will still be on the board when the Lions are slated to select 17th overall, barring a trade up. Only Miami’s Francis Mauigoa appears beyond Detroit’s reach, unless they want to pay the hefty cost to move into the top-10. Not impossible, but unlikely.
Removing Mauigoa as a solution, let’s take a wide-angle, film-based look at the other six early-round options at tackle, listed by their consensus rank on national analysts' big boards.
The prospects
Spencer Fano, Utah
Size: 6-foot-5, 311 pounds, 32 1/8-inch arms
Experience: 25 starts at right tackle, 11 starts at left tackle (all in 2023)
2025 protection stats: 382 pass-blocking snaps, zero sacks and five total pressures allowed
Fano has an athletic build and tested very well during the pre-draft process. His quickness is readily apparent on tape, with burst out of his stance, the ability to fire around the formation as a pulling blocker or shoot into the second level and mark a linebacker.