Taylor Decker and Frank Ragnow were teammates for years, a pair of first-round picks selected in 2016 and 2018, respectively. And while they arrived before General Manager Brad Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell, Decker and Ragnow were two pillars of Detroit’s offensive line and significant pieces in the club’s recent resurgence.
But things have changed for 2025, as Ragnow elected to retire during the offseason. On Monday, Decker noted how much he’s going to miss Ragnow in the center of the line, as the two were more than just teammates.
“First and foremost, losing Frank, I mean, he’s as close to an irreplaceable guy as you can get,” Decker said, via Benjamin Raven of MLive.com. “Side note, I’m happy for him. Over the last couple of years, like him kinda going through what he’s been going through mentally and physically. It could have happened sooner. I think he stuck it out for us. I’m happy for Frank. When he called me, I was sad for myself because he’s my best friend.
“It’s going to be different. But for him, I’m like relieved for you, and then I went and saw him a couple days after [the retirement] and it was the right decision. It was right for him.”
But even with Ragnow’s retirement and Kevin Zeitler’s free-agency departure, Decker is expecting the Lions to once again have a strong unit up front.
“The standard is the standard. We’re expected to be one of the top offensive lines in the league,” Decker said. “You lose big pieces but we’ve put those expectations on ourself and put ourselves in a position where we’re expected to perform a certain way. It doesn’t matter if maybe a guy is out and there is a backup in, maybe there is a guy who has never started games before, and he’s in there and he’s playing — the expectation is the expectation.
“That’s just really not going to change, and I think, for me, personally, especially as I’m getting older, I can’t let myself waver from the expectations, especially in practice. When I am back out there, I need to do things the right way because if I don’t do things the right way, then that’s setting a bad example for guys who haven’t got to play. I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in if I didn’t handle things as a professional, so just continuing to set a good example as boring as that is, kinda a lead by example sort of thing.”
Decker is currently on the physically unable to perform list as he rehabs from offseason shoulder surgery. But he is expecting to be back on the field in early August.
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