Taylor Decker paused for a second in the middle of his Tuesday press conference, looked to the Detroit Lions director of football communications Eamonn Reynolds, and chose to break a little mid-April news.
“I‘m going to go ahead and get ahead of this — I did have to have a foot and ankle surgery,” Decker admitted.
Now, before you go into a frenzy, Decker subsequently added that while he’ll be limited this spring, he expects to be a full go in training camp and for the regular season.
That said, this has been a long-standing concern for Decker. He’s suffered cross-cutting stress fractures in the ball of his foot (sesamoid) since, he estimates, his sophomore year at Ohio State (2014). Then, after injured his ankle early in the 2023 season, it put extra stress on that foot to the point where Decker determined he needed to do something, both to correct the foot issue and lingering ankle ailment. The official laundry list of surgeries:
“A deltoid repair and a sesamoidectomy with a tendon transfer and a couple bone spurs.”
Or, as Decker expressed it, his foot bone was necrotic, withering. Doctors had to remove it.
The good news is the pain alleviation was practically instantaneous for Decker. After just a single day on pain medicines, he was already feeling “incredible,” and feels this treatment will have him feeling better than he has in a long time.
“I feel like walking around today as opposed to the last game of the season, I think it’s going to be even better,” Decker said. “I was talking to my trainers in the offseason, and they’re like, ‘You’re not going to have this thing just nagging at you all the time.’ Maybe be able to enhance it even further. Maybe I’ll feel even younger, and I truly do feel like I do.”
It’s been an odd offseason for Decker. Besides the fact that he may or may not be in line for an extension, for the first time in his eight-year career, his offseason has been cut by a full month. Thanks to the Lions’ lengthy playoff run, Decker has had to acclimate to a shorter turnaround—and even shorter given the surgery. The key for him has been a robust support system.
“I also have a great training staff that I work with in Arizona, and they were on top of it with every single thing they possibly could (do),” Decker said. “And my wife, as well. She’s great with taking care of our home and our daughter and the dietary component. She does a ton of my supplements. She’s just so on top of everything. She says all the time, like, ‘I simply want to support you in whatever way I can.’ Definitely a speedier offseason. But I feel like turning the page (is) kind of invigorating, helps you get over the hangover of how the season ended.”
