Frank Ragnow is at peace with his retirement decision, according to his best friend Taylor Decker.
Taylor Decker had a feeling it was coming this year.
No one on the Detroit Lions was closer to Frank Ragnow than Decker, who calls him his “best friend.” And after the season, as the two talked several times over the phone, he was just waiting for the eventual news that Ragnow was going to hang it up after seven seasons in the NFL.
“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,” Decker said Monday. “I think he stuck it out for us. I’m happy for Frank.”
Particularly in the last few years of his career, Ragnow dealt with painful injuries on the field, and what seemed like endless months of recovery and rehab off it. While Ragnow has yet to speak publicly on his retirement, in his written statement to social media, he pointed to his health playing a major role in the decision.
“I’ve tried to convince myself that I’m feeling good but I’m not and it’s time to prioritize my health and my families [sic] future,” Ragnow wrote. “I have given this team everything I have and I thought I had more to give, but the reality is I simply don’t.”
After Decker finally got that call, he was still concerned about one thing: sometimes a player can wrestle with a decision like this for years after making the choice. But after visiting Ragnow in person shortly after the announcement, he was relieved to see that Ragnow and his family were all comfortable with the decision.
“I’m just happy that he was able to arrive at that decision and then be at peace with it. I was a little worried when I went to go see him in person afterwards that he was going to be struggling with it. But he was just relieved,” Decker said. “And just as a human being, outside of his wife and his mom and his family, I feel like I know what he was dealing with more than anybody. And everybody just seems so happy for him.”
As for moving forward without his best friend and an All-Pro center, Decker called Ragnow “as close to an irreplaceable guy as you can get.” However, the standard has been set in Detroit, and they’re going to do everything they can to carry that reputation into this uncertain future.
“We’re expected to be one of the top offensive lines in the league. 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,” Decker said. “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.”
Decker remains sidelined from a clean-up shoulder surgery he underwent after OTAs in the spring. However, the expectations is he should be ready around the start of August.
“The rehab has been going awesome,” Decker said. “Came back here pretty early for the offseason, so I’ve been back here for about three or four weeks already. It’s been going really good. Something that I’m happy that I did.”