Why Lions Like Center Cade Mays Over Juice Scruggs Against Packers

The Detroit Lions will have a new center when the team takes the field against the Green Bay Packers at Ford Field.

Speaking with 97.1. The Ticket during his weekly radio interview, head coach Dan Campbell explained he was impressed with what he saw from Cade Mays at practice on Tuesday afternoon.

As a result, the Lions will make the switch from Juice Scruggs to Mays, who inked a lucrative three-year contract in free agency this past offseason.

“We really worked the heck out of Cade yesterday. He got some quality reps, and we would like to give him a go here. We’d like to just rip this band-aid off of Cade," said Campbell. "I thought he had some good work yesterday. I thought he looked pretty good.”

Earlier in the week, the former NFL tight floated idea of potentially having a center rotation, but that was largely out of respect for how well Scruggs played the first quarter of the 2026 NFL season.

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“I don’t see us doing that. You go around and around, and all these questions come in. It’s different than a guard. Jon, you know that. A guard and a center is totally different," Campbell explained. "That guy’s touching the ball. The snap count is different. Everything: the snap, the timing, the calls, the quarterback’s comfort with one guy over and over.”

Quarterback Jared Goff shared with reporters this week what it has been like to have Mays return at practice.

“Yeah, Cade's been great. He's been on top of it through his time off and his rehab and I bet he'd say he's even stronger now than he was before the injury with all the workouts he's been doing," said Goff. "Yeah, it's exciting and he's done a good job."

The 32-year-old signal-caller does not see much of a drop off, as he did take many snaps with the former Panthers center during offseason workouts and training camp, before Mays injured his wrist.

“No, I had a lot of snaps with Cade from April until about a month and a half ago and then I had a lot of snaps with Juice from that point.”

Goff also noted that the success of the 2026 team will be determined by how well the offensive line gels and performs the remaining 12 games of the regular season.

"We can't do anything without those guys," said Goff. "We do have a really good skill group here, but they know and we know as an offense and as a team, we only go where they go. And so when they're playing well, we can do some pretty special things and they know that.”

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