A frank conversation with Lions left tackle Taylor Decker about pain management and career mortality
Allen Park — In Taylor Decker’s view, Myles Garrett is building a strong case to be considered the best defensive end in NFL history.
During his decade-long career, Decker, the Detroit Lions offensive tackle, has been tasked with blocking all kinds of edge rushers. The really good ones are usually either ultra-athletic or play with superior technique. Garrett is elite in both column A and column B.
“I mean, the guy’s like an Avenger,” Decker said, referencing the cream of the crop heroes of the Marvel Universe.
Even at his best, all Decker can reasonably hope is to slow Garrett, to limit the former Defensive Player of the Year’s game-wrecking impact. A first-team All-Pro four of the past five seasons, he’s averaged better than 14.0 sacks and nearly 80 quarterback pressures during that stretch.
But here’s the thing — Decker isn’t at his best. He’s far from it. The shoulder he originally injured during a 2017 OTA practice, which caused him to miss the first half of that season, and the same nagging one he proactively addressed with surgery this offseason, remains an issue.
It’s not even the same concern. The surgery was a success. This is something new, no less debilitating and undeniably more frustrating. Decker is in chronic pain, spending hours in the training room each day just to make it to Sunday, when he straps on the shoulder pads while still well short of 100% and tries to halt an Avenger.
Seeking an empathetic ear ahead of that challenging matchup, Decker picked up the phone last week and called former teammate Frank Ragnow.
If the franchise kept records for time spent in the training room, Ragnow would likely hold the top spot by a wide margin. He once wryly told reporters he was spending more time with the team’s training staff than with his wife.
So when Ragnow retired this offseason, shy of his 30th birthday and coming off a third All-Pro season, his teammates weren’t surprised, least of all Decker. He wouldn’t have blinked if Ragnow had pulled the plug two years earlier.
“I was just kind of venting to him about my situation, because I know he’s been in the shoes and he’s been in them more than I have,” Decker said. “…I think he was taking his dogs to the park at the time. So, yeah, I talked to him on the way home for about half an hour. He’s in good spirits. He was funny. He was like, ‘It’s crazy how much better my body feels and that I don’t have to squat 500 pounds now.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, surprise.’”
Ragnow’s decision, and his contentedness with it months later, begs the question about how Decker views his own football future, particularly given his current physical condition. He’s already played 34 more games than Ragnow did during his seven-year career with the Lions, with another 13 to go in 2025, followed by an expected playoff run.
When Ragnow announced he was hanging them up this summer, Decker admitted the mortality of his football career came into focus like never before. In the months since, particularly when the shoulder was at its worst at the start of the season, Decker briefly reached the same conclusion.