Taylor Decker has spent most of his NFL career in the shadows, because he's spent all of it in Detroit. He'll be the first to say it: "There have been a lot of times where nobody wanted to watch the Lions." Everyone will be watching them three months from now when they kick off the NFL season on Thursday Night Football against the Super Bowl champs.
“It’s going to be a huge opportunity," Decker said Thursday as the Lions wrapped up their final practice of minicamp.
The NFL spotlight is shining on Detroit. In Allen Park, Decker knows the Lions are best off shielding their eyes. They can embrace being embraced, but they can't get high off the hype.
So they're favored to win the NFC North? They haven't won their division since it was called the NFC Central. So they're a popular playoff pick in the NFC? They didn't even make the playoffs last season. If "people are jumping on the Lions" in June, Decker knows, they'll just as soon abandon them by October. The team's stalwart left tackle has swallowed too many losses the last seven years to choke on this chance to win.
"You’re a professional and you’re paid to come out here and perform, no matter what anyone else is saying about you," Decker said. "That’s just the way I take it. I’ve said this in the past -- and not to be grim -- but I’ve been here a lot when we’ve been sh*t on. We were the butt of the joke. I don’t want that. That’s not fun to be a part of, so I’m just going to continue to work and put in everything I can."
Decker, who turns 30 in August, was made in Ohio and molded at Ohio State. But Detroit, he says, is where he's "become a man." He and his wife Kyndra are raising a family here -- they had their first child, a daughter, last October -- and generations in this town are bound by belief in their football team: "I've had so many people (tell me), 'My dad's been a fan for 60 years. And for like once, he was happy at the end of the year,'" Decker said.
The Lions ended last year with a flourish, capping off an 8-2 finish by sending Aaron Rodgers and the Packers packing in front of the whole country. The goals are higher this year. With a loaded offense anchored by Decker and Co. up front and a revamped defense, the Lions are rightly reaching for more. But if they're done spoiling and foiling, the toiling has just begun. As new star defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson said Thursday, "We've got a long way to go."
Gardner-Johnson went all the way to the Super Bowl last season with the Eagles. He experienced more playoff wins in one month than the Lions have in the Super Bowl era -- and more than Detroit has in darn near a decade. The Lions' only taste of success came in 1991 in a rout of the Cowboys at a riotous Silverdome. Gardner-Johnson recently saw highlights of it on Instagram and was left licking his chops.
"The whole crowd was going crazy, a guy was crying in the stands or something. Think about that," he said. "I want to bring that feeling back here."
Even in June, it's starting to simmer. Jared Goff said this week he can sense it whenever he goes downtown or simply goes out to dinner: "There's a buzz about the Lions." Decker sensed it as soon as he landed in Detroit for the team's first round of OTA's back in April. He grabbed an Uber from the airport to Allen Park and wound up spending an extra 10 minutes in the car talking football with his driver.
"Obviously the fans, this is special to them. And this place is special to me," said Decker. "So maybe we have that common ground."
If Decker's ever grown used to losing in the NFL, he's never grown numb to it. Gardner-Johnson is all but immune to it. He's won three division titles in four seasons, the first two with Dan Campbell and Aaron Glenn in New Orleans. The only year he missed the playoffs his team still won nine games. When he sizes up his new team -- when he's not dressing down receivers in Detroit's secondary -- Gardner-Johnson describes it like this: "Phenomenal, dominant, young."
Another word might be hungry, in a city that's starving. But hype and hoopla are like empty calories, especially in June. Campbell reminded everyone last month that if the Lions get full of themselves now, "We'll get our ass kicked" this fall. This is only their season if they seize it. Their longest-tenured player will be leading the way, an Ohio native at home in Michigan, determined to write a new ending in Detroit.
"I know this city is just ready for winner," said Decker. "And I am, too."