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USA Today
4 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Lions training camp medical preview: Offensive line
The offensive line group was pretty healthy last season and added a couple more young, healthy players in the draft in Tate Ratledge and Miles Frazier. There aren't many health concerns for this group entering the season. The main issue may finding quality backups for Graham Glasgow and Taylor Decker who are advancing in age. The other big question is who will be replacing the retired Frank Ragnow at center. The continued strong performance of the offensive line will be a huge key for the 2025 season. The Lions team identity has centered around an elite running game since Dan Campbell took over. This preseason will be fascinating as there are many young, unproven players who will battle it out for important starting and backup roles on the team. Ten offensive linemen made the initial 53-man roster last season (Decker, Glasgow, Ragnow, Kevin Zeitler, Penei Sewell, Colby Sorsdal, Kayode Awosika, Gio Manu, Dan Skipper, Michael Niese). Here is the list of offensive linemen starting with the players with the biggest medical question marks entering the season. Ages are at the start of the season. #1: Graham Glasgow - 33yo Glasgow is the biggest offensive line health concern heading into the season. A reliable, solid player for most of his career, his performance dipped last season possibly due to knee injuries. He was listed twice with an unspecified knee last season and missed one game due to it. There was no specific injury seen on video last year. The offseason news is good so far as he was a full participant at OTA last month. Projection: Glasgow starts at the RG position in Week 1. Hopefully last season was an aberration and we see a return to form. #2: Taylor Decker - 32yo Decker suffered multiple minor injuries last season including a right pec strain, a rotator cuff (1 game missed), and a right MCL/ankle (2 games missed). None of those issues are of significant concern heading into the season. He was a full participant at OTA which is a great sign. The prior offseason, he had a toe sesamoidectomy which is something to monitor for the rest of his career. As seen with Ragnow, a big toe issue can have career-ending ramifications. Decker was surprisingly placed on PUP at the start of camp but the fact that he was a full participant at June OTA is reassuring. Good chance his PUP stint is brief. Projection: Decker enters the season in good health and continues to lock down the LT position as he has the past nine seasons. #3: Tate Ratledge - 24yo His slightly-older rookie age means he needs to contribute as soon as possible. We saw that already in OTA where he was starting at the center position in place of Ragnow. Off-the-field, Ratledge also appears to be a Ragnow reincarnate. Medically, there are some significant surgeries in his past. He enters his rookie season healthy though. The main concern was that he was part of the 2nd-round rookie class that remained predominantly unsigned. A couple teams at the top of the second round (Browns & Texans) broke rank by giving out fully-guaranteed contracts which caused problems for all the other teams. Fortunately, dominos began to fall around him, and Ratledge agreed to terms on July 17. Projection: With Ratledge signed, sealed, and delivered in time for the start of camp, he's a day 1 starter at center. While there may be some growing pains, he is expected to lock down the position for many years. #4: Christian Mahogany - 24yo Mahogany performed well in limited action last season. The mononucleosis that knocked him out of last year's training camp and the early part of the season is of no concern. Of more importance, he has a history of a right ACL tear in 2022 and was wearing a right knee brace all last season. He was a full participant starter at OTA at the LG position and enters camp healthy. Projection: Mahogany is the starter at LG in Week 1. #5: Dan Skipper - 30yo Skipper played through a painful, suspected rib injury last season. Despite the injury, he was available in every game and enters the season healthy. His age means that the Lions are actively trying to develop a replacement. Projection: Skipper performed well as the jumbo TE and primary OT backup last season and starts the season again in that role. #6: Netane Muti - 26yo Muti has a significant medical history with a pec rupture, Lisfranc, and Achilles rupture. He missed all last season due to the pec. He's still young which hopefully helps him going forward. He was a full participant at OTA which is a good sign. Projection: Muti's riddled injury history makes it an uphill battle for him to find a spot on the team. #7: Jamarco Jones - 29yo Jones has a history of a high ankle sprain and shoulder in his past. He played four offensive snaps with the Lions last season and enters the season healthy. Projection: Jones will compete for a backup OT position. #8: Kayode Awosika - 26yo Awosika has been a valuable reserve OG for the Lions the past three seasons. Last year, he played 147 offensive snaps. He enters the season healthy. Projection: His solid performance in previous years gives Awosika an edge in winning a backup job. #9: Giovanni Manu - 24yo The Lions traded up to grab Manu in the 2024 4th-round in the hopes he will develop into a quality OT. He didn't see the field as a rookie last season, and it's time to show progress as he enters his second year. Projection: Preseason will be big for Manu as he tries to overtake Skipper for the primary backup OT job. Even if he doesn't win that job, he still makes the 53-man roster. His young age and potential gives him an edge over his competition. #10: Kingsley Eguakun - 24yo Eguakun had his final college season in 2023 shortened due to an ankle injury, but that shouldn't be a major concern now. He joined the Lions as an undrafted rookie last year but didn't see any action. Early signs this offseason suggest he is in strong contention for a backup position. Jeff Risdon recently observed that Eguakun was the primary center backup at OTA. Projection: His young age gets him a role at least on the practice squad. #11: Colby Sorsdal - 25yo Sorsdal didn't see an offensive snap last season. He enters his 3rd year hoping to earn a backup position. Jeff Risdon observed during OTA that Sorsdal was taking some snaps at center which makes you wonder if it's a last-ditch effort to find him a role on the team. He was a full participant at OTA and enters camp healthy. Projection: This preseason is crucial for Sorsdal as time may be running out for him. The position he plays during preseason will be interesting to see. #12: Miles Frazier - 23yo There were no medical concerns coming out of college for this 5th-round rookie. He was not a full participant at OTA, but there was no indication of a significant issue. Surprisingly, he was placed on PUP at the start of training camp for unknown reasons. Positional versatility increases his value as he played OG and OT in college. Projection: Let's assume the PUP stint is short. Frazier makes the 53-man roster as a backup who may end up playing key snaps if there are any injuries. Given his youth and health, it would be ideal for the team if earns the primary OG backup role in similar fashion to Mahogany last year. #13: Michael Niese - 27yo Niese played 35 snaps last season as a backup. He was a full participant at OTA and enters the season healthy. Projection: Niese was an important backup center last season. We'll see if he can hold onto that role in spite of younger competitors like Eguakun. #14: Trystan Colon - 27yo Colon played all 17 games last year with the Cardinals. He was signed after Ragnow retired. Projection: He's got a decent amount of playing experience in the NFL over the past two seasons which could be valuable. #15: Penei Sewell - 24yo There are no health concerns for this perennial All-Pro. He had multiple minor ankle sprains last season as well as an ugly left knee hyperflexion in the playoffs, but did not miss a single game. He was a full participant in June OTA. Projection: This 4th-year player is still implausibly young. Entering the season, Sewell is favored to win the NFL's new Protector-of-the-Year award which goes to the best offensive lineman.
The Herald Scotland
11-06-2025
- Sport
- The Herald Scotland
NFL players pay brutal price for football life
Terron Armstead played 12 seasons in the NFL, most recently for the Miami Dolphins. Armstead was only 33 years old when he retired. In many "normal" jobs, you're just getting started at 33. Not the NFL. Armstead recently appeared on the "Nightcap" show and said his career is at the point where he could only play in games if he used painkilling medication. Then he described something stunning. He originally injured his knee in 2015, but it never fully healed. Meaning, he's been playing with significant knee pain as an NFL player for about a decade. "I've been dealing with a knee (issue) since my third year in the league," Armstead said. "I didn't see a practice field at all, and not because I didn't want to, or the Dolphins just wanted me to rest. It's like I literally couldn't walk. "After a game on Sunday, I wouldn't be able to walk on my own, under my own power, until Wednesday, Thursday. So I was only able to play under the pain meds. I couldn't put any pressure on my knee, so it was like, I can't keep doing that to myself." It's far from uncommon for NFL players to deal with chronic pain, even when extreme. I've heard numerous examples of this (interestingly the stories almost always come after the player retires). We know about this part of the NFL but none of us should forget it. Sure, no one forces them to do it. Yes, they get tons of cash. It's prestigious. The problem is we continue to shift away from recognizing the human part of what players do. We are traversing further away from acknowledging them as human beings, like we're on a starship, and the helm is taking us away from our home world. It's not just fantasy football that's doing this. Gambling is dehumanizing players in worse ways than fantasy football or anything else ever will. Walking away from the game isn't easy, but it's better to walk away on your own than it is to be forced out@ShannonSharpe @ochocinco @T_Armstead72 @ShayShayMedia_ — Nightcap (@NightcapShow_) June 5, 2025 Eric Winston, a former NFL offensive lineman and union executive, when once addressing the dangers of legalized gambling, spoke of the possible consequences, one of them being the further demeaning of athletes. "A lot of people look at us as -- I don't know if it's subhuman -- but not necessarily human, not necessarily having those feelings, those issues that everyone else is having," Winston was 2018. It's so much worse now. Why we sometimes need to take a breath, pause for a minute, just a minute, and remember what these NFL players go through. Players like Frank Ragnow. He retired at just 29. Ragnow was one of the league's great competitors and ironmen. But the litany of things he played through reads like something from a screenplay for a movie about a chaotic ER. Ragnow played through ankle injuries (2019 and 2023), a concussion (2019), a fractured throat (2020), turf toe (2021 and 2022), a groin injury (2022), a calf injury (2022), a back injury (2022), a knee injury (2022), and a partially torn pec (2024). A fractured throat. One more time: a fractured throat. (For the record a fractured throat does not sound great.) But beyond the catastrophic injuries are the ones that prevent players from having normal lives. Doing things like just walking around. Bending down. Standing. Driving. Ragnow once missed 13 games in 2021 because of what he called "the most severe degree of turf toe." He had a different injury to that same toe the following season and called that year one of the toughest of his career. He told the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, two years ago that surgery wouldn't help and he would just have to play through for the rest of his career. It's difficult to believe it didn't play a part in his decision to retire. Again, at just 29. "These past couple of months have been very trying as I've come to the realization that my football journey is ending and I'm officially retiring from the NFL," Ragnow announced. "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 future. "I have given this team everything I have and I thought I had more to give, but the reality is I simply don't. I have to listen to my body and this has been one of the hardest decisions of my life. The Lions organization has been absolutely incredible throughout this process and I can't emphasize this enough how grateful I am for this team and all the fans. It was an absolute honor going to battle for you all." He did battle. All the time. A lot of NFL players do. Most do, in fact. And as we watch them battle, don't forget what they are: human beings. All the NFL news on and off the field. Sign up for USA TODAY's 4th and Monday newsletter.
USA Today
07-06-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Dan Campbell cites successful Saints past for how Lions can replace center Frank Ragnow
Dan Campbell cites successful Saints past for how Lions can replace center Frank Ragnow Frank Ragnow's retirement throws a curveball into the Detroit Lions offensive line plans for 2025. The second-team All-Pro center hung up his cleats this week, leaving the Lions with a hole in the middle of the vaunted O-line. Detroit has several options to fill that hole. None are proven to be close to Ragnow's caliber, of course, but Lions head coach Dan Campbell brought up a similar situation and an ultimately successful story from a prior coaching stop. Prior to Thursday's final OTA session, Campbell harkened back to his days coaching with the New Orleans Saints. In 2019, the Saints saw Pro Bowl center Max Unger walk away somewhat unexpectedly just before the draft. New Orleans selected Erik McCoy in the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft to fill those big shoes. As Campbell tells it, 'Experience is big. It is. But I think it's whether it's there or it's the guy next to you, that can help out a lot too. But you're going to need some experience somewhere in there and as long as you have that, you're OK. I mentioned this before — Erik McCoy, he played center in college at Texas A&M when I was at New Orleans and Max Unger had just retired. We were fortunate we drafted him, and he was plug and play. We put him in. He grew quickly, quickly, quickly. By game three, game four, he was cooking. Doesn't mean you won't have growing pains, but it can happen fast." Given the numerous comments from Campbell and players like Amon-Ra St. Brown and Dan Skipper that Ragnow's retirement wasn't entirely unexpected by the Lions, the decision to draft Tate Ratledge in the second round makes the comparison to the 2019 Saints situation quite prescient. Ratledge has taken the first-team center reps in Ragnow's place all spring, even back to the rookie minicamp, despite playing right guard at Georgia in college. Campbell continued, "The development can happen fast. I'm saying, for example, you put Tate (Ratledge) in there. If not, is it (Lions OL) Graham (Glasgow) by him at guard who's helping him out or is Graham your center? Or is it one of these other guys? Is it Kingsley (Eguakun)? We're going to have options. That's why we're excited about training camp. We're going to find this out. We're going to let these guys go at it." Ratledge has noted that he did practice at center at Georgia and was the Bulldogs' backup center last season. His snapping has been impressive in the OTAs, though the sessions have been unpadded. As for the Saints, McCoy has become a two-time Pro Bowler and the heir apparent to Ragnow and former Eagles All-Pro Jason Kelce as the top center in the NFC. He's different than Unger, who was a more agile presence, was in New Orleans, but has proven to be equally effective in his own way. The Lions are going to see if Ratledge is ready to write the same story in Detroit, or if this chapter takes a different turn for Campbell. More: Breaking down the Lions options to replace Frank Ragnow now that the center is retiring
Miami Herald
05-06-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Report: Lions sign Colon following longtime center Ragnow's retirement
The Detroit Lions' search for a replacement for retired All-Pro center Frank Ragnow now includes veteran Trystan Colon, according to an NFL Network report on Wednesday. Colon, formerly known at Colon-Castillo, is signing a one-year contract, per the report. He played in all 17 games last season for the Arizona Cardinals and made a career-high seven starts at right guard. The 27-year-old played center for the Baltimore Ravens and made four starts from 2020-22, then 11 starts at right guard for Arizona in 2023 and 2024. He has played in 51 games and started 15. He became a free agent on March 11. Ragnow, 29, announced in a post to social media on Monday that he is retiring after seven NFL seasons. A first-round pick out of Arkansas and a key cog on one of the best offensive lines in the NFL, Ragnow was named second-team All-Pro last season and made the Pro Bowl four times. He started all 96 regular-season games and four postseason games he played from 2018-24 but has dealt with numerous injuries. Tate Ratledge stepped into Ragnow's starting role during offseason workouts. He's a converted guard who started three seasons as a right guard for Georgia. If the Lions decide the rookie second-round pick isn't ready, left guard Graham Glasgow has started at center and could slide to that position. Field Level Media 2025 - All Rights Reserved
New York Post
05-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Post
Dan Campbell's emotional reaction to Frank Ragnow's shocking retirement at age 29
Dan Campbell lauded Frank Ragnow on Thursday with an emotional tribute days after the Lions center's shocking retirement at the age of 29. 'Frank's been unbelievable. Teammate, football player, man of the community. He's done it all,' the Detroit head coach said at a press conference, his voice cracking with emotion. 'He will be sorely missed.' Advertisement 4 Lions center Frank Ragnow announced his retirement in June 2025. NurPhoto via Getty Images Ragnow, a four-time Pro Bowler with the Lions, announced his retirement Monday on Instagram. '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,' he wrote in the post. Advertisement 'I have given this team everything I have and I thought I had more to give, but the reality is I simply don't. I have to listen to my body and this has been one of the hardest decisions of my life.' As he spoke about Ragnow on Thursday, Campbell referenced one play from Detroit's 31-23 win over the Buccaneers in the 2024 NFC Divisional Round. With the Lions facing a fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line and the game knotted at 10-10, Detroit ran it up the gut with running back Craig Reynolds for the go-ahead touchdown. Advertisement 4 Lions center Frank Ragnow announced his retirement from the NFL Monday after seven seasons. AP 4 Frank Ragnow (77) during the Lions' NFC Divisional Round matchup against the Bucs in January 2024. Getty Images The play was a success due in large part to Ragnow, who managed to block one of Tampa Bay's biggest defensive linemen after a painful collision with the lineman's knee. 'It was huge,' Campbell said. 'That's the type of player he was.' Advertisement 4 Lions head coach Dan Campbell said Thursday that retiring center Frank Ragnow will be 'sorely missed.' AP The 6-foot-5, 310-pound Ragnow played seven seasons with Detroit, sticking by the franchise through its rise from NFC North bottom-dweller to Super Bowl contender. He dealt with a recurring toe problem during his career, which caused him to miss 13 games in 2021, and it flared up in 2022 as well. Ragnow was a Pro Bowl selection in each of the last three seasons leading up to his retirement, and leaves a void for Detroit to fill on the offensive line as the team looks to contend for a championship this season.
