Taylor Decker, Frank Ragnow land on PFF’s top 101 players from the 2020 season
The Detroit Lions haven’t found their names on many end of season top player lists in recent years, but this year the team has seen a nice inclusion on several of those lists.
Some notable recognitions for Lions players this year include T.J. Hockenson, Frank Ragnow, and Jack Fox making the 2021 Pro Bowl, as well as Ragnow and Fox being named to the 2020 AP All-Pro second team.
Pro Football Focus recently published their annual Top-101 players from the previous season, and after failing to have a single Lions player make the list in 2019, the Top-101 players from the 2020 NFL season saw the team land three — well, two — players: offensive linemen Taylor Decker and Frank Ragnow, as well as recently trade Matthew Stafford. Despite making PFF’s 2020 All-Pro team, Fox did not make the list here.
Decker was the highest-ranked Lions player on the list landing at the No. 72 spot.
“One of the most solid pass-blocking left tackles in the game, Taylor Decker was again excellent in that regard in 2020,” PFF’s Sam Monson said. “He allowed just two sacks over almost 700 pass blocking snaps for the Lions this season and posted the second-best PFF run-blocking grade of his career. Decker had three perfect games of pass protection on the season.”
Ragnow checked in at No. 88 on the list.
“Frank Ragnow has improved each season of his NFL career, and 2020 was his best yet. He earned an overall PFF grade of 80.3 and didn’t allow a sack all season. Overall, he was in pass protection for 609 snaps and surrendered only nine total pressures. Ragnow also had a PFF run-blocking grade above 80. If he takes another step forward again this offseason, 2021 could be special.”
Stafford found himself on the list at No. 73, just one spot below Decker.
“In what turned out to be his final season in Detroit, Matthew Stafford nearly backed up his career-best play from last season, but the production was down because the offense was significantly less aggressive. Stafford finished the season with 32 big-time throws and will hope that those throws can unleash something special in Los Angeles next season.”
