Pro Bowler Frank Ragnow reportedly in need of surgery, missing for the season in another blow to the Lions

ALLEN PARK – Even on their day off, the Detroit Lions can’t take a break.

Pro Bowl center Frank Ragnow requires toe surgery and will be closed for the season, according to NFL Network. Ragnow sustained the injury – a type of turf toe – two weeks ago in Chicago and was placed on the injured list. Head coach Dan Campbell said he would miss “quite a long time”, but there was initial hope he could play again in 2021. But after consultation with Dr Robert Anderson, and with the Lions already out of action at 0-5, the decision has been made for Ragnow to undergo surgery now and start preparing for the start of the 2022 season.

Ragnow was a surprise on draft day in 2018, when no major draft analyst had the Arkansas All-American heading to Detroit. When the Lions made the No. 20 pick, even Ragnow was surprised because Detroit barely spoke to him during the draft process.

In a time of Quinntricia when almost everything went wrong, maybe that was what they did best.

Ragnow first moved to guard, where he was solid as a rookie, before returning to center in 2019. He was really good that year, allowing just one sack and placing in the top six. best players of the position according to ProFootballFocus.

Last year, he officially joined the ranks of the elite. He allowed no sacks and a single touchdown quarterback all year, and that included a December game where he broke his throat in the first quarter against Green Bay. Ragnow stayed on the pitch, never missed a snap, and never allowed a rushed quarterback, let alone a hit or sack. Even though he couldn’t even speak and was in tremendous pain.

Ragnow was still under doctor’s orders not to speak when he learned he had become the first Lions center to make the Pro Bowl since Kevin Glover in 1997.

“I wanted my mom to FaceTime, and I literally couldn’t talk to my mom,†Ragnow would later say. “It was just frustrating wanting to celebrate with my family because they were so excited.”

There was a regime change in the offseason, and the new guys weren’t blind. New GM Brad Holmes has kicked off a massive rebuild that has already touched almost every nook and cranny on the list, but saw Ragnow as a foundational piece worth building long term. And in a year he spent almost no more money beyond 2021, Holmes gave Ragnow more money than anyone has ever spent on a center, a 70 million extension. of dollars over four years that will keep Ragnow in Detroit for the foreseeable future.

Ragnow also had another formidable start in 2021, allowing no sacks in the first three games of the season and ranking first in crosses in the league according to PFF. But then disaster struck Chicago when Ragnow suffered a toe injury.

He came off the field after a shotgun blast bounced off an unsuspecting Jared Goff and into the hands of a Bears defensive lineman. Then he walked up the tunnel, as star running back Romeo Okwara lay down on the pitch with a burst Achilles tendon, also a late-season injury for a snake-bitten Lions team that is still in search of his first victory. And he won’t come out of that tunnel again, leaving Detroit without its best offensive lineman as it seeks its first win, and possibly its best, period.