ALLEN PARK, Mich. — It was locker room cleanout day for the Detroit Lions. Much earlier than any of them anticipated.
“People were asking me today when I’m going home and stuff like that,” Lions center Frank Ragnow said. “I wasn’t planning on it. I wasn’t planning on any of this.”
This is their reality. A long offseason awaits. Eventually, players will pick themselves up and be able to move forward.
Just not yet. Here’s more from the final locker room session of the season.
Day-after thoughts from the Lions
As one would imagine, players were still navigating the fallout from Saturday’s loss. A 15-win season, over in the blink of an eye.
Don’t expect players to appreciate what they’ve done anytime soon. They’ll be thinking about this one for a while.
“It was feeling special, you know?” Ragnow said. “And it’s frustrating because now it’s over. Lockers are cleaned out and we’re on to next year. That’s just the reality of this league.”
“It’s just one of those things you gotta take on the chin,” Penei Sewell said. “If you’re not motivated as ever from this, you just gotta look at the man in the mirror at the end of the day.”
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Nobody on this team thought they’d be here, cleaning out their lockers, the Sunday after the game. There were a lot of delayed responses to questions. A clear annoyance having to answer some of them. But the team simply didn’t deserve to win Saturday night. The Lions were outplayed and outcoached. All it takes is one night in January to end four months of work.
The Lions will face questions moving forward. We don’t know what the staff will look like. Their schedule is tougher on paper. And as their payroll increases, they’ll have to be more selective when it comes to who gets paid and who walks.
The Lions are still one of the league’s most talented rosters. Their core is in place. If the Lions lose their coordinators, there will be a finality of not getting it done with the staff that was here from the beginning. But they built it the way they did to have multiple chances.
“I just believe at the end of the day, this league is all about players,” Ragnow said. “The foundation that Brad and Dan have set with cornerstone players in this locker room, I think it’s gonna be tough for us to do anything besides success. Some of the talented players in this locker room are built like nothing I’ve ever seen — you look at Penei, you look at (Amon-Ra) St. Brown, (Aidan) Hutch(inson), Alim (McNeill). Those are young guys that are not only as talented as all get out, but they have the right mindset.”
Alim McNeill speaks
There were a number of injured Lions who emerged in the locker room for cleanout day. There was Aidan Hutchinson, who declined to speak. Derrick Barnes was briefly spotted. Rookie defensive tackle Mekhi Wingo lingered at his locker for some time. And for the first time since tearing his ACL, Lions defensive tackle Alim McNeill spoke to reporters about his recovery and his team’s finish.
“It’s tough,” McNeill said. “It’s definitely tough. Not what anybody expected this year. We put in a lot of work, we had goals set out for this year and, you know, things took a different turn and we’re kind here now. It happens, but it’s definitely tough. Kinda hard to swallow. Nobody knows what to think about it, really.
McNeill’s injury came in Week 15 against the Bills. Carlton Davis joined him on injured reserve that week. Those two injuries, in particular, felt too much to overcome. McNeill was a DT capable of winning a one-on-one pass-rush rep or clogging running lanes up the middle. Davis was Detroit’s No. 1 corner and was having an excellent season in Aaron Glenn’s man-heavy system. The Lions did just enough to weather the storm and secure the No. 1 seed, but those injuries felt troubling down the stretch. Detroit’s inability to generate a pass rush without blitzing and its lack of corner depth really showed Saturday evening.
A few notes on some injuries:
- McNeill, walking around the locker room with crutches, said he’s taking his recovery day by day. He didn’t put a timetable on his return. Because of the Lions’ long-term commitment to McNeill and how important he is to the team, you have to think they’ll let him take his time. We’ll see where he’s at in a few months.
- Hutchinson has been walking without crutches for weeks now. He was pushing for a Super Bowl return, but it wasn’t meant to be. He can now afford to take his time and fully heal without pushing himself.
- Barnes told reporters last month that he was aiming to return for the Super Bowl. Campbell shut that down. However, it speaks to how close Barnes was getting. He had been rehabbing extensively. Like Hutchinson, perhaps for the best. Have to think he’ll be ready for OTAs if he was almost ready for a Super Bowl.
- Cornerback Amik Robertson underwent surgery for a broken humerus. The expectation is he’ll be ready for offseason workouts. Had the Lions won, he wouldn’t have played.
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Future of Lions players and coaches
Lions players understand that their coaches might be on the move. It was a topic of conversation Sunday afternoon.
Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn are the first names. You never know until you know, but it certainly feels like both coaches will depart. But what’s even more interesting is who they might take with them.
The one coach who was discussed more than once: offensive line coach Hank Fraley.
Fraley is a respected offensive line coach who’s been credited with the development of several players during his time with the Lions, which dates back to 2018. He interviewed for the Seahawks offensive coordinator gig, so it seems there’s interest in making the jump. He would be a logical choice to join Johnson elsewhere if Johnson can persuade him to leave and give him an OC title.
Fraley’s players weren’t having any of those talks, though.
“You refuse to let Hank leave,” Ragnow said. “I haven’t played in this league without Hank and I don’t plan on doing it. So, I’ll sabotage him, I’ll leak stories, whatever it takes. …I don’t think I could play in this league without the guy. He’s everything to me.”
“He’s not going nowhere at the end of the day,” Sewell said. “He’s not going nowhere.”
The Lions have a few players who could be sought-after free agents. Most weren’t around to talk. Davis quickly exited the locker room briefly and didn’t speak. Kevin Zeitler wasn’t around. Barnes was exiting the locker room as local media walked in, but you have to think he’d like to be back.
One player who did speak was Ifeatu Melifonwu. It’s been an up-and-down career for him in Detroit, but he did make his intentions known when asked.
“If the opportunity presents itself I would definitely like to be back,” Melifonwu said. “Because I was one of the original draft classes here, so yeah, I would definitely like to be back.”
We’ll have plenty of time this offseason to discuss the turnover on the roster and the coaching staff. But right now, the Lions are bracing for impact.
Rookies on their development
A handful of Lions rookies talked about their first years in the league and what they expect moving forward. Here’s what we gathered.
CB Terrion Arnold: “Ah, man, it was nothing but experience. I always said a lot of teams sit back and play zone. I had to go out there and challenge wide receiver ones, and I’m young. So, I know I’ll be the best corner in the league pretty soon.”
That’s the confidence the Lions loved from Arnold when they drafted him. He was thrown into the fire and made plenty of mistakes along the way. But both Arnold and the coaching staff believe he’ll be better for it. We’ve seen players like Hutchinson, McNeill, Barnes, Kerby Joseph and Jack Campbell get better with time. Don’t be shocked if Arnold is right there with them soon.
CB Ennis Rakestraw Jr.: “Now that the season is over, I actually was gonna have an opportunity to play. That was gonna be the Tampa Bay week. I actually was coming up as a starting nickel that week. A lot of people didn’t know that. I got hurt in warmups and that was kind of a setback, step back. So, all I gotta do is be available. It kind of was a redshirt year, but you don’t get to pick those situations. Don’t nobody just pick to be hurt. I obviously wanted to go out there with guys like Terrion and, you know, our DBs, just the type of intensity they bring and the type of team that we had. I’m gonna just take everything I watched from them and learned from them and develop my game in the offseason to be a better person and be available.”
That was a bit of news from Rakestraw. It implies that the Lions were going to bench Robertson in favor of Rakestraw in Week 2. However, Rakestraw injured his hamstring before the game and was ruled inactive. He reaggravated his hamstring later in the season. Rakestraw is going to need to prove he can stay healthy — injuries were an issue at Missouri, too — but he was competitive with Lions’ receivers throughout training camp and caught the attention of the staff prior to his injury. It’ll be interesting to see how he fits into the secondary picture in 2025.
OL Giovanni Manu: “Literally, this whole year felt like I was just in a hyperbolic chamber. While you guys were busy focusing on the season, I was just out here getting better. I just trapped myself in this dark room and I was just going to work every day because that’s what this organization deserves, and that’s what I’m gonna give the fans of this organization.”
The Lions knew Manu would be a project. This year was all about quiet development, and Manu said he felt himself getting better and better each year. Before certain plays on scout team, there were times he didn’t even know who to block. He credits Fraley for helping him get the mental side of the sport down, while also challenging him to use his size and physicality more often. It’s early, but that’s the stuff you want to hear. Because physically, he’s got all the tools.
DT Mekhi Wingo: “I was solid, but obviously I can work on every part of my game. Being more sound in the run game, being a more effective pass rusher, being a better film watcher. So, you know, I’m not satisfied with anything, and I can be better with everything. I know what it is now. It’s no guessing. It’s no wondering. You know what the game is. You know what the speed is. You played in it. I think I played 11 games. You get more comfortable knowing what it is. You know, it’s no surprises anymore.”
Wingo was drafted in the sixth round by the Lions, but many gave him a third or fourth-round grade coming out of LSU. He’s on the smaller side and it shows against the run at times, but he flashed some interior pass-rush juice. He was a regular in the rotation from Day 1 and played in 11 games prior to tearing his ACL. Wingo underwent surgery in December and was given a recovery window of 5-6 months. He says he expects to be 100 percent by June.
(Top photo: Junfu Han / USA Today)
