The league keeps lining up the praise for the Lions, and Penei Sewell is the latest Detroit star to land at the top of his position. In ESPN’s ongoing series that asks executives, coaches and scouts to rank the top 10 players at each spot, Sewell came out as the best offensive tackle in football.
That kind of recognition fits the way people around the league have talked about him since he entered the NFL in 2021. He was viewed right away as a cornerstone for the rebuild Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes were trying to build in Detroit, and now the respect has only grown after his third straight First Team All-Pro nod.
A veteran defensive coach summed up Sewell’s game this way: “He’s still the most complete player at this stage -- physical, powerful, smart,”
Even with that reputation, Sewell’s 2025 season was not his cleanest. He said it himself.
”This year alone, it wasn’t my best ball. It was far from that,” said Sewell regarding his play in 2025.
“It starts with me up front. I believe that I’m going to set the tone.
I’m going to make plays that typically, o-linemen don’t make. This year was really a down year for me, and that’ll be on my mind.”
He dealt with a few injuries during the season, issues that seemed to linger over several weeks before the Lions held him out of their Week 18 win over the Chicago Bears.
Now Sewell is set to shift back to left tackle after spending most of his time at right tackle since arriving in Detroit. It’s a return to the spot where he won the Outland Trophy at Oregon, and it’s a move that doesn’t seem to worry Campbell.
“He’s been working it even being back home before we started the offseason program, once I gave him the words,” said Lions coach Dan Campbell. “So, it’ll be like riding a bike for him.
Will there be things he’ll have to learn? Yeah, of course there will be.
But I mean he has played left. That’s muscle memory.
He played a lot of left in college and for us for those in ’21, those first few games. And he still took reps at left even over the last five years, so that’ll be seamless.
That’ll be seamless. Sewell can do it all.”
Detroit has already seen Jahmyr Gibbs, Aidan Hutchinson and Sam LaPorta show up in ESPN’s top-10 rankings at their positions. Sewell’s turn at the top only adds to the sense that the Lions’ core is getting the kind of league-wide respect that comes with elite play.
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