It never looks good when the Pro Bowl center is injured on the field. It doesn’t look good when the person needs two men to help him get to the sideline, then boards a cart that takes him back to the locker room.
From the press box, the Frank Ragnow injury didn’t appear promising.
The Lions were not impressed either.
“It sounded like one thing at first,” said head coach Dan Campbell. And it was a severe matter.
But upon further review, the Lions are holding out hope their Pro Bowl center has actually avoided the worst-case scenario.
“After the fact, it sounded like something maybe a little bit different,” Campbell said. “One’s not as good, one is real positive. I won’t know until tomorrow.”
The Lions are no strangers to the injury bug up front, playing through myriad health issues to Taylor Decker, Jonah Jackson and Halapoulivaati Vaitai, the latter of whom is expected to remain on injured reserve for the rest of the season. They’ve still cruised to the top of the league’s offensive line rankings, according to Pro Football Focus, paving the way for a vicious ground game while offering Jared Goff some of the best pass protection in the league. His sack rate was just 4.9% heading into the weekend, which was fourth best in the league despite taking three sacks last week.
But losing Ragnow would be a whole other thing. He’s allowed just two hits and no sacks all season, and ranked as the No. 2 center in the league according to PFF.
The good news is the Lions have a great backup in Graham Glasgow, who has experience playing center both in Detroit as well as last season in Denver. He repped there when Ragnow took frequent days off during training camp and the early weeks of the season, and has moved there seamlessly in a couple games this season. He continued to play well at that position in New Orleans, and delivered a key block on the touchdown run by Jameson Williams in the fourth quarter.
“I had to take the glove off and redo my finger tape. The finger tape I put on my hand just broke the first play I had it on, and was like, ‘Dang, that stinks,’” Glasgow said. “But yeah, I think that you kind of take it in stride for the most part. There are times where I have to think about (stuff). When I’m going through the week, I’m not really thinking about the center stuff. I have it on the back of my mind, but I’m not really thinking about it. And then when that happens, it’s just like trying to picture the run drawings and the tags that are on all these plays. But it was pretty good I guess.”
It was. The issue is that shifting Glasgow to center leaves Detroit with a void at guard, where Vaitai is also out for the season. Rookie Colby Sorsdal is the next man up, but he struggled against Chicago two weeks ago and was benched against the Packers on Thanksgiving.
With only five games remaining before the playoffs, the Lions are hoping Ragnow can return for a title run.
