Lions Lose Starting C Cade Mays With Wrist Injury

The Detroit Lions have been dealt a major blow to their offensive line before Week 1, as starting C Cade Mays will miss a “significant amount of time” with a wrist injury, HC Dan Campbell announced Monday.

The good news for Detroit is that the injury is not expected to be season-ending. Campbell said the Lions expect Mays to return at some point during the season, with NFL Network reporter Ian Rapoport providing a return timeline of 8-10 weeks.

Mays was brought to Detroit this offseason on a 3-year, $25M deal after spending the first four seasons of his career with the Carolina Panthers.

Detroit struggled to find a consistent answer at center in 2025 and even made a late attempt to convince longtime Lions C Frank Ragnow to come out of retirement. That ultimately didn’t happen.

Now, the Lions will have to turn to another option before Mays has even played his first regular-season game with the team.