{"id":857057,"date":"2026-04-06T15:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T15:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/857057\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T15:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T15:46:19","slug":"why-taylor-decker-wont-play-for-bears-packers-after-detroit-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/857057\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Taylor Decker won&#8217;t play for Bears, Packers after Detroit exit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/detroit-lions\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Detroit Lions<\/a> have already made plenty of changes during the 2026 offseason. One of the more surprising moves was <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/detroit-lions\/taylor-decker-shocking-lions-release-free-agency\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Detroit releasing left tackle Taylor Decker<\/a>. Thankfully, Lions fans don&#8217;t have to worry about Decker suiting up for an NFC North rival.<\/p>\n<p>Lions reporter Justin Rogers explained why the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/live\/oCg_apLch3s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">veteran tackle does not want to play<\/a> for the Bears or Packers in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe wants to play for a winner. Yet he\u2019s kind of thinking about, \u2018Is it cheap to go win somewhere else after you\u2019ve invested all your energy emotionally and physically into one franchise?\u2019\u201d Rogers said on April 2nd via the Lions Collective podcast. \u201cI will tell you that he\u2019s pretty anti-playing for the Bears or Packers. That\u2019s the Lions background in him. I know Ben Johnson did it and that was the right situation for him, but Taylor feels kind of dirty about the idea. It just isn\u2019t interesting to him. I could see him joining a team mid-season, the further he gets away from football and games being played, injuries happening and the right offer occurs. I could also see him not playing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Lions landed Decker with the 16th overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. He has been the team&#8217;s blindside protector ever since. But Detroit viewed him as expendable this offseason, especially with <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/detroit-lions\/lions-news-dan-campbell-teases-possible-penei-sewell-position-change\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Penei Sewell potentially moving to left tackle<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Decker reportedly wants to retire as a Lions, too.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTaylor Decker wants to be remembered as a Lion, to the point where he wants back in the fold,\u201d Rogers added. \u201cWherever this season may go, whether he plays for someone else or doesn\u2019t, he wants to come here, sign the one-day contract, retire a Lion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It will be fitting if Decker does retire as a Lion one day. Even if he ends up playing for a different team in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The Detroit Lions have already made plenty of changes during the 2026 offseason.  One of the more surprising moves was Detroit releasing left tackle Taylor Decker.  Thankfully, Lions fans don&#8217;t have to worry about Decker suiting up for an NFC North rival.  Lions reporter Justin Rogers explained why the veteran tackle does not want to play for the Bears or Packers in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Detroit Lions have already made plenty of changes during the 2026 offseason. One of the more surprising&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":857058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[146,113,2506,7,147,6,2592,19192],"class_list":{"0":"post-857057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-detroit","9":"tag-detroit-lions","10":"tag-detroitlions","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-lions","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-nfl-free-agency","15":"tag-taylor-decker"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116358545177851713","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}