“Coming off two surgeries, I think they probably wanted to see how I was moving around a little bit,” Decker said Monday after the first practice in pads. "And then in OTAs, I actually went up and had a conversation with Dan. I was like ‘Where are we at? I hear things from my agent and from our salary cap people when they are talking and I’m kind of getting secondhand information. I want to hear it. Like just tell me where we are at just so I know. I want the info so it’s communicated well.’
“And pretty much what he told me is to a T what happened. I just had to stay patient.”
The conversation gave Decker the hope and reassurance that a deal would be coming down the pipe.
“When we communicated man-to-man, it was very amicable and since that conversation I felt it was promising that it was going to happen,” Decker said.
“This is where I wanted to be. I had pretty much no interest in going to any other team,” Decker said. “I wanted to be here, and a big factor of that is the guys I get to play with, and I want to continue to play with them.”
Iffy should have a talk with someone. O’Neil, Townsend, AG, Dan, Holmes.
It looks like he is getting squeezed out after a dynamic end of season breakout.
What is the plan for him this season and long term?
I love to see loyal guys rewarded fairly. It is great to see this organization doing the right things far more than not.
I haven’t been so happy to be a Lions fan since Sheila took over the team. She took over the team, seriously took guidance from knowledgeable people, hired Brad and Dan (Dan first if I recall correctly. That move was gutsy at the time because most believe the GM should hire the coach. Regardless, both hires were spot on.), and have built this organization into something that we mere fans can be proud of.
In my younger years, I did not value the front office function as much as I should have. Over the course of the last couple of decades, I have come to realize that it is the foundation of everything.
