ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- The exact timeline is a little bit unclear.
Denver general manager John Elway said the Detroit Lions inquired about interior offensive lineman Manny Ramirez more than once over the past “couple weeks.” Lions coach Jim Caldwell didn’t give much of a timeframe about when the team started asking about Ramirez, either.
“In enough time to do our due diligence,” Caldwell said. “We looked at film and all those kinds of things.”
In other words, this was not a throw-in that happened on the fly Thursday night. The Lions clearly had been interested in bringing Ramirez back for at least a little while. He had started his career with Detroit and played four seasons with the club before heading to Denver.
And now he’s back as part of a draft-day deal that led the Lions to take another interior lineman, Laken Tomlinson from Duke, with the No. 28 pick. Bringing in a player like Ramirez was critical for the Lions, who had been searching for a veteran on the interior of the line throughout free agency.
They offered a contract to Rob Sims. They brought Justin Blalock in for a visit. Instead, they acquired Ramirez, a player offensive line coach Jeremiah Washburn worked with during Washburn’s first couple of years in Detroit.
Plus, he has versatility. He can play guard or center in Detroit and could end up being a valuable swing interior lineman who could back up Tomlinson, guard Larry Warford or center Travis Swanson. General manager Martin Mayhew said it is the reason the Lions traded for him -- turning down two other offers to move back in the first round.
“Quite frankly, I don’t know why we ever let him go,” Mayhew said. “I mean, great guy. Great in the locker room, great leader, very physical player. He’s got experience at guard and center, so we’ve got versatility.
“He’s a quality football player.”
He’s also someone who could fill the leadership hole left by Sims and longtime center Dominic Raiola, who Ramirez played next to in 2009. This is important since the Lions have no offensive linemen who have played in the NFL for more than three seasons (Riley Reiff).
That’s a huge change from last season, when the Lions had starters Sims and Raiola along with backup Garrett Reynolds who had more experience than that. That’s another benefit of bringing Ramirez into a room without a large amount of experience and established leaders.
“It’s a challenge, but also, that’s our job,” Caldwell said. “We don’t care about the difficulty and what that looks like. Our job is to win games.
“Jeremiah will do a great job with him. [Terry Heffernan] will do a great job with those guy in there. They’ll get them playing and playing well.”
