Detroit Lions center Frank Ragnow warms up during an NFL football practice in Allen Park, Mich., Thursday, June 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)AP
ALLEN PARK -- In a potential blow to both team and player, All-Pro center Frank Ragnow is dealing with a groin injury that is serious enough to sideline him for practice on Thursday. Halapoulivaati Vaitai and Tommy Kraemer also were unavailable, leaving the Detroit Lions’ highly-anticipated offensive line razor-thin heading into the opener on Sunday against Philadelphia.
It’s difficult to understate the gravity of the situation. The roster is so much better this year, but nowhere is it better than on the offensive line. The Lions have invested heavily in first-round picks like Ragnow, Taylor Decker and Penei Sewell while spending wildly on free agents like Vaitai. Throw in the emergence of Jonah Jackson, and that group was expected to join the league’s elite last season.
That never happened, because that starting five never happened. Not even for one snap. Decker underwent finger surgery just days before the opener, Ragnow suffered a season-ending foot injury by the time Decker returned, and Detroit went on to cycle through seven starting combinations while dealing with injuries across the front.
Ragnow was devasted by his foot injury, so much so that the team had to talk him out of trying to play through the blown-out ligament in his foot.
“At first I thought I could completely deal with it because there wasn’t much pain,” Ragnow said in January. “But from a functional, balance and a movement standpoint, it was very unrealistic for me to think that I could be the player that I could be. That was what was so frustrating for me, because I thought I could tolerate it.”
Eventually Ragnow gave in to the medical staff, underwent surgery and set his sights on getting right for 2022. He did, too. He was back with the team for the start of the offseason program and looked like himself during a standout training camp. He took just one day off all summer, way back on Aug. 10.
Then on the first day of practice in Week 1 -- the same day Decker suffered the finger injury that sent him to IR last season -- Ragnow suffered a groin injury. He was listed as limited on the practice report that day, then was nowhere to be seen a day later, leaving his status decidedly unclear heading into the opener in three days.
Head coach Dan Campbell has not spoken to reporters since the Ragnow injury, so the nature and severity of the injury remain unclear. It’s also worth noting Ragnow has played through various injuries along the way -- including a fractured throat in 2020 -- to become one of the game’s iron men in the trenches. He also wanted to play through the severed ligament in his foot last year. So perhaps he will try to play through this too.
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Either way, Ragnow’s injury is yet another setback for perhaps the Lions’ best player. He was second-team All-Pro in his last healthy season and is widely considered among the best centers in the league. With Vaitai and Kraemer also sidelined, the Lions are now down three of their top four guard options overall -- just in time for a matchup against an Eagles defensive front that returns Fletcher Cox and has added first-round pick Jordan Davis.
Logan Stenberg is now the top guard on the bench, although he’s played just four offensive snaps in a disappointing two-year run in Detroit. The Lions are more comfortable with him on the left side, and probably would elect to play him there if they do go that route. That would bump Jackson, coming off a Pro Bowl season, to right guard.
The Lions are also toying with Sewell at right guard, and inserting Matt Nelson into the lineup at right tackle.
No matter which direction they go, this surely isn’t the way Detroit expected to open another season.
“Listen, I love this O-line, and I still love this O-line,” Campbell said before practice on Wednesday. “Certainly losing Big V will hurt, he’s been a steady rock for us, and he’s a great team guy. But I still love where we’re at. Look, just as a player and as a coach, the O-line, as long as you get a group of guys that knows how to work together, and they’re tough, and they’re smart, you can make great things happen. And we got plenty of that still up there. So we’ll be fine.”
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