A few days before the Lions-Texans game, Taylor Decker strained his rotator cuff in practice, a week after straining his pec on the same side. The injury came to the same shoulder on which the veteran left tackle previously had surgery for a torn labrum. This is what nine years in the NFL can look like.
Much as he hated it, Decker was forced to watch from home last week as his teammates took the field on Sunday Night Football in Houston. And then he had to watch them fall behind 23-7 in the first half, as the offensive line wilted against the Texans' pass rush.
“I felt personally responsible for the first half of that game, and I’m not saying that jokingly," Decker said Wednesday. "I felt really bad, even though I know it was in my best interest and the team’s best interest to sit that one out. When you’re not out there with your guys, especially when it’s guys that you’ve played with as much as I’ve played with some of these guys on offense, it’s a guilty feeling, it really is.
"That’s one thing that’s going to drive you to be back out there, is when you don’t get to be.”
Decker, 30, intends to return for Sunday's game against the Jaguars: "As of today, that is my plan," he said. He was estimated as a limited participant for Wednesday's walk-through, and Dan Campbell said he likes Decker's chances of playing: "I’m starting to feel pretty good about him. I think he’s going to be able to make it." Decker is hopeful the injury won't be a long-term issue.
The biggest question might be whether it's worth it to the Lions to return Decker to action against the last-place Jaguars when they could likely get away with giving him another week to recover. Asked about balancing the urge to play now with ensuring he's healthy later in the year, Decker said, "I leave that up to the medical staff."
"I've told (the trainers) since they've gotten here, 'If I'm being stupid, I need you to protect me from myself.' That's their job and that's what they do," said Decker. "Ultimately, if you leave it up to the player, nine times out of 10 they're going to play, even if they shouldn't. Every game is important to me. We only get to play 17, and all things are pointing to us being in the playoffs, of course.
"You want to be out there whether it's Week 10 and you're mathematically eliminated or it's Week 10 and you're rolling. That doesn't change my desire to be out there and play."
The Lions did miss Decker last week, even if he hasn't been quite as steady as usual this season. Dan Skipper stepped in at left tackle and struggled to contain star pass rusher Danielle Hunter. Decker said he texted Skipper, his longtime teammate, right after the game to commend him for hanging tough in a difficult assignment: "He battled his ass off." Still, Decker's return to the lineup would be welcome.
The offensive line as a whole has been uncharacteristically leaky of late, with Jared Goff facing more pressure than he's used to. Decker acknowledged that "for us up front, overall, not up to our standard, for sure."
He diagnosed it as "a combination of winning your one-on-ones, passing off games (by the defense), and then it's always going to be an entire offensive thing. We need to be able to give the quarterback time if we want the ball out, and we have to give him a good pocket to be able to work in."
For Decker, the guilt last Sunday never quite faded. Even after the Lions came back to win, "it doesn’t really change the fact that I wasn’t out there with him," he said. As for watching Jake Bates knock home the game-winning field goal as time expired, Decker laughed and said, "Well, I was in bed and my wife was asleep, so I was just trying to stay still and be quiet."
"I did wake her up and tell her we won. She was like, 'That's great,' and went back to sleep.'"