Even at LT, Lions OC Views Sewell Among 'Best Tackles' in NFL

Sewell has quickly adjusted to playing left tackle.

Dec 4, 2025; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Lions offensive tackle Penei Sewell (58) sprays water on his face before a game against the Dallas Cowboys at Ford Field. Mandatory Credit: Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images | Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images

Penei Sewell, the No. 7 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, has undeniably cemented his status as one of the NFL’s very best offensive linemen. 

Sewell has been an AP first-team All-Pro selection each of the past three seasons. Plus, he’s coming off a season in which he earned a 95.2 overall grade from Pro Football Focus, the very best overall mark among 89 qualified offensive tackles.

And now entering the 2026 campaign, he’s set to be the longest-tenured player on the Lions’ offensive line.

“I know every year we talk about it (being) a different year, but this one is kind of feeling a lot different because all the guys that I came in with are not here anymore,” Sewell said. “It’s a lot of new faces.”

For years, Detroit's offensive line was anchored by a veteran core that included Taylor Decker, Frank Ragnow, Jonah Jackson and Halapoulivaati Vaitai. Those experienced linemen helped establish one of the NFL's most productive units while factoring significantly in the Lions' rise to playoff contenders.

That era no longer exists, though. Each of those linemen have since moved on, with Decker being the most recent to depart the Motor City.

Sewell believes the onus now is on him to maintain the culture built by the aforementioned previous generation of Detroit linemen. 

“The standard is the same,” Sewell said. “I’m the one who has been here the longest in the room, so it’s up to me to really hold that and really show the guys, not just tell them. That’s the most important. You have to come out here each and every day because they’re not going to follow you if you’re not doing it yourself.”

The All-Pro tackle also admitted that practicing without pads, like the team has been doing throughout OTAs, is nowhere close to the intensity of training camp practice.

“I mean, we just gotta get the pads on,” Sewell expressed. “For the bigs, it's kind of hard. It's not really football for us. Can't really simulate those helmets and pads, all that contact that happens. But as of right now, everyone's moving good, everyone's getting there. We’re just trying to get that playbook down.”

Along with learning the playbook, Sewell has been tasked with moving across the line to the left tackle position. After suiting up primarily on the right side of the line for the first five seasons of his career, the Oregon product will serve as Lions signal-caller Jared Goff’s blindside protector this upcoming season. 

To no surprise, Sewell has quickly adjusted to left tackle, per new Detroit offensive coordinator Drew Petzing.

“He looks like, if not the best, one of the best tackles in football, left, right, middle, wherever you want to put him,” Petzing said of the sixth-year lineman. “He is extremely impressive, and I think he takes a lot of pride in that.

“But again, like a lot of the guys in this building, just the way that he approaches the job and the way that he thinks about the game and the way he comes in and works and wants to get better every day, regardless of where we line him up, I think has been really impressive.”