After a few days of bad news, some good news for the Lions offensive line: Frank Ragnow is trending toward playing in Sunday's season opener.
The Pro Bowl center injured his groin in Wednesday's practice and missed practice Thursday. But he returned to the field Friday with hopes of suiting up Sunday against the Eagles and their loaded defensive front.
"I felt pretty good, so I'm cautiously optimistic," Ragnow said after Friday's practice.
Ragnow said his "groin popped a little bit" Wednesday, which "scared me." Of course it did. But an MRI confirmed it wasn't anything serious, a major sigh of relief for Ragnow after he missed most of last season with a toe injury.
And a major sigh of relief for the Lions, who already lost starting right guard Halapoulivaati Vaitai to injured reserve earlier this week and are counting on Ragnow to be the anchor of a dominant O-line.
"Wednesday I was pretty down, not gonna lie, after last year's deal," Ragnow said. "I was pretty upset. But it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected initially, so that was good."
Ragnow practiced in limited capacity Friday and is listed as questionable for Sunday's game. He said the decision of whether he'll play is "less on me, because I'm going to try to go, and more on the coaches and the medical staff." They all want to see how he feels tomorrow.
Then Ragnow harkened back to something Matthew Stafford said in his final season in Detroit after playing through a rib injury in a meaningless December game against the Titans.
"Stafford said one time -- he was pretty banged up before we played the Titans -- and I saw some quote that was like, 'It's Sunday, I'm the quarterback for the Detroit Lions, and I'm going to do everything I can to be out there.' That really impacted me," Ragnow said. "That's how I want to approach it."
Indeed, asked why took the field that day after another grueling loss, Stafford said, "Because I'm the quarterback of the Detroit Lions, and it was Sunday. I've got a bunch of teammates out there who are working their asses off. If I'm good enough to play, healthy enough to play, my ass is going to be out there."
It looks like Ragnow's ass will be out there on Sunday, so long as his groin allows it.