PHOENIX – The only free agent the Lions signed longer than a one-year contract so far this year is veteran center Cade Mays, who agreed to a three-year deal with the team.
The Lions knew they needed an upgrade at center and graded Tyler Linderbaum and Mays as the top two available at the start of free agency. Linderbaum reset the center market with a three-year, $81 million contract with Las Vegas. Detroit signed Mays for $25 million over three years.
"He and Linderbaum, we thought were the two," Lions head coach Dan Campbell said this week at Annual League Meetings. "So, we were fired up to be able to get him. That was big for us, man. Being able to get that center piece. We feel like Mays can anchor. He can keep the pocket clean for (Jared) Goff up the middle, and we don't feel restricted in the run game."
Mays, the Panthers' sixth-round pick in 2022 out of Tennessee, will turn 27 years old in April. He appeared in 52 games and started 27 in his first four seasons in the league with Carolina at guard and center. Over the past two seasons, he's started 20 games and hasn't allowed a single sack. He's graded out as a better pass blocker than run blocker, but Campbell and the Lions see a lot of upside in his game.
"We do feel like we can do the pin and pulls, the wide zones and gaps with him and we think he's got enough versatility in all that," Campbell said. "And he's an ascending center. He really hasn't played it that long. He's getting better. We felt a lot of growth last year in that tape and they played really good opponents, a lot of them that we played.
"We just thought he had a really steady, solid season that's ascending and we're like, 'Man, this guy upgrades us.' So, we're fired up to get him. It helps significantly."
Mays clocked 727 snaps on offense this past season, the most he's registered in a single season. With more than 1,200 snaps at center over the past two seasons, he gives the Lions an experienced veteran they can plug and play in the middle of their offensive line. He started 12 games, allowing a pressure rate of just 2.56 percent last season (11th among centers). He has allowed just 23 total pressures, six quarterback hits and zero sacks across 803 pass-blocking reps the last two seasons.
"I love the brand of football they play," Mays said during his introductory press conference at the Meijer Performance Center last month. "I feel like I would fit in here. Coming into free agency, I felt like this is the team where they fit what I do and I fit what they do.
"You look at what you want as a player and as a person, and obviously, coach Dan (Campbell) is my kind of guy, and I feel like I'm his kind of guy. You look at stuff like that, and you look at the brand of football they play."
