Lions' Glasgow not letting backup center responsibilities distract from starting job battle

Allen Park — One of a handful of starting jobs still up in the air for the Detroit Lions is the right guard spot, being contested between veterans Halapoulivaati Vaitai and Graham Glasgow.

Vaitai, the incumbent, looked like the early favorite, but after a short injury absence the two have largely split the first-team reps evenly in a competition that appears to be one of the roster's biggest coin flips three weeks before the regular-season opener.

The Lions re-signed Glasgow this offseason after a three-year stint with the Denver Broncos. With the signing, team leadership praised the veteran's three-position versatility, giving them not only a contender for the right guard job, but insurance at left guard and center after Jonah Jackson and Frank Ragnow have missed time with injury the past two seasons.

But that blessing of versatility also has been something of a curse for Glasgow this training camp. That's because every time Ragnow needs time off, including three of the past four practices, it's Glasgow who has to move, taking his attention away from concentrating on earning the starting guard job.

"I wish I could determine that, (but) that's the guys upstairs," Glasgow said after Thursday's practice. "I don't get to determine that. I was saying earlier, I think if you can play center, you can play guard, and I would like to get more guard reps, but at the end of the day, it's just the price of doing business."

Overall, Glasgow has been pleased with his performance during camp, and despite battling for a single job, he's forged a strong bond with Vaitai, both on and off the field.

"I think we have a pretty good relationship," Glasgow said. "He's a great guy. He's really humble, he's funny, he's a good guy to be around. We went golfing a lot during OTAs, it might have been once a week, and I had a lot of fun with him. Like I said, he's a great guy."

While the guard battle may be up in the air, Glasgow said there's no question who is better on the links.

"Me," Glasgow said without hesitation. "I mean, that's not a high bar, but he actually got a lot better."

Tip of the cap

Lions coach Dan Campbell tries to go out of his way to thank some of the underappreciated and underacknowledged members of the organization and did so again ahead of Thursday's practice, praising the work of head groundskeeper Eric Bryan.

"We had the Giants right, and then we have Jacksonville coming in (for joint practices), both at home," Campbell said. "You’re going to have 180 guys out there running around, or close to it. And, so Eric Bryan our head of grounds crew is going to be the guy put under fire. He was a little nervous about that back in March, but I’ll tell you what, he’s delivered. Those fields are unbelievable. ...that’s credit to him and his crew."

The Lions had been originally scheduled to hold Monday's session, between the two sets of joint practices, indoors to further rehabilitate the outdoor fields, but Bryan's crew did such a good job, the Lions were able to conduct the day's work outside that afternoon.

jdrogers@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @Justin_Rogers