4 Thoughts to End the week: Staff evaluations and re-thinking Decker's offseason decision
Allen Park — Here are four thoughts to end the week as the Detroit Lions prepare to travel to Chicago to close out the 2025 season.
Shifting perceptions
If you had asked me at any point this season whether Taylor Decker would be back for the 2026 campaign — based on multiple conversations with the offensive tackle — I would have emphatically expected that to be the case.
Coming out of this week, I’m far less confident.
To be clear, it’s nothing Decker said or intimated in his media session, and I haven’t talked to him in a few weeks about the topic, but there were a couple of subtle comments made by teammates in off-record conversations that have me rethinking my position.
In this instance, stepping away is as much an emotional decision as a physical one, and the one thing Decker did note this week is he’s not planning on making any decisions until after the season. That’s a reasonable approach. This has been a physically taxing campaign for the veteran lineman, and the sting of missing the postseason is still fresh. He’ll need some time to clear his mind.
If Decker reaches the same conclusion former teammate and close friend Frank Ragnow made last offseason, it opens up another gigantic hole for the team to fill.
Regardless of Decker’s timing, general manager Brad Holmes can’t bank on the return like the team did with Ragnow last year. And while I’m not dismissing the possibility that Gio Manu can be the long-term answer, even if there’s still plenty of development needed, the Lions have to add more talent at the position, potentially even using the team’s first-round pick on a tackle.