DETROIT – Taylor Decker isn’t from Detroit, and he might not fully understand the extent of Lions fans’ suffering over the past half century, but after the team’s win over Carolina on Sunday, he perfectly summed up how this fan base is feeling right now.
Head coach Dan Campbell gave Decker the game ball after the 42-24 win over the Panthers on Sunday because it was Decker’s 100th career start for the Lions. Decker was the team’s first-round pick in 2016 and has been a staple at left tackle for most of the past seven seasons.
While he might not be a lifetime Detroiter, Decker knows the ups and downs of this franchise as well as any player in the league. When he arrived, the team was competing for wildcard spots under Jim Caldwell. Then, he endured the disastrous Matt Patricia era.
Now, he’s finally getting to play for a true winner.
Decker played 15 games for the Lions team that went 3-12-1 in 2019. He was the starter for nine games when they went 3-13-1 under Campbell two years ago.
But today, he’s a veteran for a first-place team that just won its third game in row.
“Hey, for real, this means a lot to me,” Decker told his teammates in the locker room. “This organization, when they brought me in, like, it was to be a winner, man, and now we’re doing that and it feels so good. I feel the best I’ve ever felt in my career, regardless of all the ball I’ve played, because, man, it just feels so good to be a part of something special.”
The moment was so genuine, and Lions fans can definitely relate. They’ve waited so, so long for a team that could actually compete for a Super Bowl, and even though it’s still early in the season, this looks like a team good enough to try.
The Lions have one playoff win in the last 66 years -- sixty-six years. In a league where every team has the same roster restrictions, the same salary cap, the same opportunity in the draft -- that’s an almost inconceivable level of incompetence.
But that’s also why this season -- and every single win along the way -- feels so good. Have you heard Ford Field during home games this season? It sounds like a Penn State Whiteout game, except in a dome. Lions fans were desperate for winning football, and now they’re soaking it all in.
Decker is one of the few players on the roster who’s experienced hard times over a prolonged stretch in Detroit. And now, when he talks about how good it feels to finally win, fans understand exactly what he means.
That’s the kind of mentality that has helped Campbell and Brad Holmes turn this organization around. Fans can rest assured that the next 100 games will be more fun than Decker’s first 100.