Getty Frank Ragnow runs on the field before a Lions game in 2021.
The Detroit Lions haven’t had a great start to the 2021 season given their winless record, but even in spite of that, the team has still had some players who have stood out in a positive way.
One such player is center Frank Ragnow. Though Ragnow has just been lost for the foreseeable future due to a toe injury, his play was progressing well once again this season and was worthy of accolade early on from folks around the league.
The latest Lions news straight to your inbox! Join the Heavy on Lions newsletter here!
Ragnow cracked the 2021 Pro Bowl for his work last year, and seemed on track to do similar things this year. A quarter of the way through the 2021 season, Pro Football Focus has named Ragnow to its All-Pro team. Ragnow only cracked the second team, however, and was behind Jason Kelce at this point. Writer Sam Monson put the list together, but didn’t say anything about Ragnow directly, choosing to talk about Kelce.
Unfortunately, given Ragnow now has to miss time with an injury, it does’t seem likely he will be able to make up ground in time to overtake Kelce, but the hope is he can come back strong whenever he does return in 2021.
Ragnow Caught Attention of PFF Early During 2021
Week in and week out, Ragnow is quietly one of the best players on the field, and gets plenty of accolades as it relates to this. This year, Ragnow wasted no time picking up yet another significant celebration of his play from Pro Football Focus.
Early on this season, Ragnow wasted little time showing how good he can be, getting named to another Pro Football Focus accolade. After Week 1, the site named Ragnow to their PFF team of the week at center. The list was put together by Anthony Treash, and included some big names at other positions including Tom Brady, Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill. That was a big honor for the lineman very early in a new season.
Ragnow getting on the team so quickly is a good thing for the Lions, and it’s clear based on these accolades he was once again trending toward a solid 2021 season on the field.
Ragnow’s Injury Status, Replacement Explained
Ragnow is one of the NFL’s hardest players to keep out of starts or game action due to injury. Sadly in Week 4, he exited the first half of Detroit’s battle with Chicago with a turf toe like injury. After that point, it was thought that Ragnow could rally in time to only miss Week 5. Wednesday, though, he was placed on injured reserve which effectively ended any hopes of him coming back in the month of October. Forced to take over will be Evan Brown, who didn’t play poorly in relief of Ragnow and has some good experience with the team to fall back on.
Speaking during his press conference on Wednesday, October 6, Dan Campbell admitted he feels as if Brown came idn and did a nice job for the team.
“I thought he played well. I thought he was solid. I thought he went in and really didn’t miss a beat. There were really only a couple of plays I know he wishes he’d have had back. But, I thought he went in and did a good job,” Campbell said.
As good as Brown might be, the team would prefer to have their full-time starter in the mix. Obviously, Ragnow will have to play extremely well after injury to crack a Pro Bowl or All-Pro team such as the one he was named to for the first quarter.
READ NEXT: Lions Steal Young SEC Lineman From Texans