| The Detroit News
The Detroit Lions haven’t had an offensive lineman selected to the Pro Bowl in more than two decades, but through the first 10 weeks of the 2020 season, the team has a pair of strong contenders in 2020.
Both left tackle Taylor Decker and center Frank Ragnow have been among the league’s best at their position, and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell hopes that fact is not going unnoticed.
“I think they are playing at a really high level,” Bevell said. “Hopefully, the people around them see it, I think their peers see it — you know, the guys they have to go up against every week. We’ve faced some good fronts and there are (have) some good fronts in our division. But, again, (Washington) was probably as good as it can get and to hold the quarterback fairly clean throughout the game speaks well for those guys.”
The Lions allowed just one sack against Washington, when the team’s blocking was overwhelmed by an overload blitz and quarterback Matthew Stafford couldn’t get rid of the ball quickly enough. Still, that’s impressive considering the opponent was ranked in the top-five in both sack rate and pressure rate coming into the game.
Even more impressive, neither Decker or Ragnow have allowed a sack this season. So it’s not all that surprising that both rank near the top of their positions, according to analytics site Pro Football Focus.
Ragnow grades out as the second-best center in the NFC, behind Green Bay’s Corey Linsley, according to the publication, while Decker has been the seventh-best offensive tackle in the conference through this point in the season.
The last Lions offensive lineman to be selected to a Pro Bowl was center Kevin Glover, who was named to the annual all-star roster three consecutive years from 1995-97.
The NFL already has announced this year’s Pro Bowl has been canceled, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, the league intends to name rosters. Typically three tackles and two centers are named for each conference.
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers