Frank Ragnow Can Stay Home, Lions' 2025 Season Looks Bleak

It’s time to sound the alarm in Motown.

The Detroit Lions (7-5) are reeling. With their loss to the Green Bay Packers on Thanksgiving, they find themselves firmly behind both the Bears (8-3) and the Packers (8-3-1) in the NFC North, with just five games remaining in the 2025 season. Additionally, the Packers now hold the tiebreaker over the Lions, due to sweeping the season series with Detroit.

It also doesn't get any easier for Detroit in the weeks ahead, with matchups looming against the Dallas Cowboys (6-5-1) and the L.A. Rams (9-2).

Dak Prescott and the Cowboys are red hot and just knocked off the reigning Super Bowl champion Eagles and the reigning AFC champion Chiefs in back-to-back weeks. Meanwhile, the Rams, led by MVP frontrunner Matthew Stafford, might just be the best team in the entire NFL right now. They've won six in a row, and don't look to be slowing down anytime soon.

It's tough sledding for the Lions moving forward, and it puts the team's already diminishing playoff hopes further in jeopardy.

“We dug ourselves a little bit of a hole, and that's the bottom line,” Detroit head coach Dan Campbell said after the Week 13 loss to Green Bay. “We are in a little bit of a hole. But that's just what it is. There's nothing more than that. All we have to do is worry about cleaning up this and getting to the next game and find a way to win the next one in front of us.”

That sounds great and all, but the Lions might not have what it takes to morph back into playoff contender mode at this present juncture.

Detroit's issues are multi-layered and present on both sides of the ball. And no one player – sorry, Frank Ragnow – is going to be able to come in and rectify all the team's woes. Anyone still hanging on to the idea that Ragnow, as admirable as his career has been, can swoop in and stabilize this unraveling season is clinging to a fantasy.

Ragnow’s surprising decision to unretire briefly ignited hope among the Lions fanbase. It was the type of emotional jolt fans latch onto when the standings look bleak and the schedule looks even bleaker.

And don’t get me wrong: Ragnow did a lot of good in his first stint with the Lions. He was a four-time Pro Bowler, and anchored the offensive line in exemplary fashion for several seasons in Detroit. He played through injury after injury, and embodied the signature grit and toughness of a Campbell-led team.

Yet, inserting Ragnow into this mess isn’t a solution. It’s a distraction from the larger, more uncomfortable truth: the Lions’ issues run deep, and no single player can mask all of them.

This is a team that entered the 2025 season with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations, only to fall into bad habits, stale play-calling and personnel shortcomings that have become increasingly glaring with each passing week.

Detroit now looks less like a contender and more like a team scrambling for answers at the most inopportune time of the season.

For starters, the Lions’ pass-rush has basically been non-existent the past two weeks, mustering a combined one sack. Detroit failed to get home a single time against Jordan Love, and it contributed to the Lions having a hard time getting off the field on third down and being unable to get a single stop on fourth down. The Packers, in fact, were three-for-three on fourth down Thursday.

No returning center can aid that.

Aidan Hutchinson and Detroit’s pass-rush, meanwhile, were vastly outperformed by Micah Parsons and the Packers’ pass-rush department. The All-Pro EDGE wreaked havoc all afternoon long, and finished with 2.5 sacks of Jared Goff and four total quarterback hits. Green Bay, as a team, sacked Goff three times.

Then, on offense, Campbell’s play-calling – initially viewed as a positive — has become another glaring issue.

Against Green Bay, it lacked creativity every step of the way, and did little to set up a balanced offensive attack for Detroit.

Furthermore, the Lions have been hurt by the injury bug on the offensive side of the ball.

Over the past few weeks, Goff has lost his two biggest security blankets to injury. First, it was tight end Sam LaPorta, who is out for the season with a back injury. And then on Thursday, Goff & Co. lost Amon-Ra St. Brown to an ankle ailment, which could keep him out for multiple weeks.

Those are devastating blows to a Lions offense which has not been nearly as explosive in recent weeks. And for as electric as Jameson Williams can be, it's a lot to ask of him to fill the void of both LaPorta and St. Brown, especially if he's not consistently being put in a position to succeed by Detroit coaching.

Now Ragnow’s presence may very well help Goff feel more comfortable at the line, help protections settle and may even open a few more running lanes. However, it won’t replace 150 targets of production or reinvigorate the offense.

There’s also the uncomfortable reality that Detroit’s depth – once considered a major roster strength – has not held up.

The receiver position is thin behind St. Brown. The defensive line beyond Hutchinson has failed to produce anything close to complementary pressure. And injuries have forced backups into roles they aren’t built for, and the drop-off has been significant.

Detroit needs high-impact reinforcements at several positions (defensive line, receiver, etc.), and those just aren't going to come – no offense to any of the practice-squad players – this late in the season.

Sure, Ragnow may set a tone. He may steady the locker room, and his presence may make a difference in ways box scores can’t quantify. However, leadership can only carry a team so far when the talent on the field and play-calling are inferior to the competition.

At this juncture, the Lions are who they are, and that might not be good enough to be a playoff team for a third straight season.

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