Christian Mahogany returns as Lions' left guard competition heats up

Christian Mahogany was back on the field Friday three days after being added to the non-football injury list on the eve of Detroit Lions training camp.

In his morning news conference just before practice, coach Dan Campbell didn’t indicate Mahogany was set to return.

But the left guard, whose ailment was not disclosed, was seen working in with the first team during early periods.

Last season, Mahogany started each of the 11 games he played, demonstrating strength as a run blocker but also deficiencies in pass protection. Even though Mahogany yielded a team-high six sacks and suffered a broken left fibula that sidelined him for six weeks, his job was secure. That is no longer the case, however. In the spring, Campbell indicated that a competition will be waged at his position.

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“Listen, it is open and Mahogany is very much in that,” Campbell said in June. “He played a couple of games for us in ’24 and then he started for us until he had the injury, came back, started again. So, we know he has got ability, he’s got potential.”

The Lions, though, are considering other candidates, including Miles Frazier and Ben Bartch. Bartch, a seventh-year veteran who signed with the Lions in March, didn’t take part in organized team activities this spring as he recovered from ankle surgery. But he has appeared in 55 games and made 24 starts since entering the NFL in 2020. Frazier, the Lions’ 2025 fifth-round pick, didn’t debut until last December after rehabilitating a knee injury he suffered during the previous offseason. When he did get on the field, he was slotted at right guard, playing 46 snaps in a reserve capacity.

“There is a reason why we brought in Bartch, there is a reason why Frazier is here, there is a reason why all those guys are in there,” Campbell said last month. “We are going to let this thing go and see what happens. It will be good for all of them, when you have some nipping at your heels or constantly – you are having to compete with and push and you guys are all competing for the same thing, it is good for everybody. But yeah, [Mahogany] is in the running, and we expect him to compete. We expect him to put his best foot forward and play some of his best football.”

Now that he is back on the field, Mahogany will have the opportunity to do just that.

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Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him @RainerSabin on X.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Christian Mahogany returns as Lions’ left guard competition heats up