It's interesting that earlier in the week I was putting together numbers for the weekly Detroit Lions moon stats video and I saw that the last time the Lions played the Titans at home was back in 2016. That was Taylor Decker's rookie year. That seems like so long ago.
Decker has had a big career with the Lions, but in 2024 there's been some slip in his play and it has some wondering if we're witnessing the end for Decker in Detroit. Let's talk about it.
Look, there's no way around it, Decker has been struggling as of late. He's allowed 15 pressures and six sacks this year. Two of those sacks happened on Sunday against the Titans when Arden Key beat Decker like he stole something both times.
There's some reason to have some concern. Six sacks in seven games is rough. Its the most sacks he's allowed in a season in his career. He did it once in 2019, but that was over the course of an entire season.
So the question once again is are we watching the end for Decker? Is this the swan song?
Decker is 31-years-old and it's not crazy to say that his career could be on the downtrend after eight seasons of playing at a high level, but I'm not ready to say that this the end for him. Here's why:
When you really look at Decker's season in context, you really start to see that he's just had two back to back bad games and the rest of the season has actually been pretty decent for him. For example, we mentioned the 15 pressures he's allowed, well half of those came in one game against the Vikings.
Outside of that game, he's allowing like two a game. That's not too bad at all. The other thing is that 15 pressures doesn't even put Decker in the top 20 in pressures allowed by tackles in the NFL.
While Decker is not playing at a Pro Bowl level right now, I think it's a bit of an overreaction to say this is the end for him. There's been a good deal of football this year and he's looked good for most of it. Let's see how the rest of the year goes before we start writing a eulogy for him. Remember that he's also under contract till 2027.
