Lions center Ragnow is out vs. Titans with throat injury
The Lions declared center Frank Ragnow out for Sunday’s game against the Tennessee Titans after Ragnow visited a throat specialist Friday.
Interim coach Darrell Bevell said Friday morning that the team would lean on the specialist for advice on how to handle Ragnow’s rare injury.
Initially, the Lions listed Ragnow as questionable on their Friday injury report, then downgraded him to out around 5 p.m.
“Obviously, (the specialist) has to tell us that he’s OK to play,” Bevell said. “I mean, he’s the specialist, he knows what he’s looking at. The communication from him will be able to tell us, is it safe for him to play? Is it totally clear? All those types of things is what we’re looking for.”
With Ragnow out, the Lions could slide rookie Jonah Jackson from left guard to center, move Oday Aboushi from right to left guard, and play Joe Dahl at right guard.
None of the three has taken a snap at center in a regular season NFL game. Dahl also has taken center reps in practice, and he and Aboushi are interchangeable at guard.
“We have a good feel for who we like to go in there,” Bevell. “I think the biggest thing is more of the communication than just playing the position. There’s a lot of communication that goes on from the center as well as the quarterback position. If there’s a new quarterback in there, that’s two guys that are communicating that really have to be in lockstep. That’s really been the focus this week.”
The Lions (5-8) are expected to activate Halapoulivaati Vaitai off injured reserve to start at right tackle Sunday with Tyrell Crosby out for the second straight week with a sprained ankle.
Stafford questionable
Darrell Bevell saw it up close with Brett
Favre, the Hall of Fame Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings quarterback who was occasionally too hurt to practice but somehow willed himself onto the field for games.
That’s why Bevell said Friday that Matthew Stafford will travel to Tennessee this week for Sunday’s game against the Titans, and the Lions could take the decision on whether their starting quarterback plays all the way up until 90 minutes before kickoff.
“Both of those guys, they love the game,” Bevell, the Lions’ interim coach, said. “They love being out there with their teammates. They miss it when they’re not able to be out there. They feel like – it’s one of those things where you literally feel like you’re letting people down if you don’t go out there. So I have to give it to the guy. … I’m not putting him past it.”
Stafford has a painful rib cartilage injury, but Bevell said the 12th-year quarterback was feeling better Friday, when he sat out practice for the third straight day.
“Just to be clear, we’re not going to let the guy go out there if he’s in a state where he can’t protect himself and is going to be a detriment to him,” Bevell said. “But a lot of these things are like, ‘How can you manage the pain? Can you play and function with it?’ I’ve seen it like, from Favre’s broken thumb to his MCL, all those kinds of things, and here goes Matthew. You guys have seen it. You guys have covered this team way longer than I’ve been here and you know what he’s done and what he’s played through.”
Stafford played the end of the 2018 season with fractured bones in his back and has played the second half of this year with a right thumb injury that has limited him in practice.
If he cannot play Sunday, Chase Daniel is expected to start at quarterback.
Along with Ragnow and Stafford, starting defensive tackle John Penisini is also questionable for Sunday.