Taylor Decker's messy exit from the Detroit Lions has a new twist. As the veteran tackle accuses the team of 'ghosting' him, a former teammate has weighed in. John Jansen's take, however, isn't what fans might expect.

John Jansen, a former Detroit Lions offensive lineman who now co-hosts Costa and Jansen on 97.1 The Ticket, recently gave his take on the matter.

"There are so many professional athletes that would like the opportunity to determine how they leave an organization or game," Jansen said on the podcast. "Yet there are only a handful in the history of any sport where you actually get to dictate that moment. I wasn't of that talent. Taylor Decker isn't of that talent."

As someone who lived this exact situation firsthand, Jansen didn't hold back.

"You're just not there," the former tackle said. "If you spent a decade there, even if they had called and said, Taylor, we really appreciate everything that you've done. I don't think it would have made a difference."

Jansen did not speculate, he was speaking from experience. Taylor Decker made his stance clear: he would return, but not on a pay cut. The Detroit Lions answered through his agent, restructure or move on. There was no meeting, no counter, just an ending. And for Jansen, that is the reality, once a franchise decides to move on, no call changes things.

After 140 games and nearly a decade anchoring Detroit’s line, Taylor Decker is set to move on. The former first-round pick even found the end zone twice during his stint, but now the chapter closes as he looks to extend his career elsewhere in the NFL.

Jansen argued that Detroit handled Decker's departure poorly. Recently, the head coach, Dan Campbell, too, commented on the veteran's departure.

Dan Campbell Speaks Out on Taylor Decker's Departure

Jansen wasn't the only one feeling the heat. The ghosting accusations eventually reached the one person who couldn't stay quiet, Dan Campbell.

Soon, the silence turned into a story that Campbell needed to answer.

The tension continued to escalate. Decker later went public with his frustration, telling Justin Rogers of Detroit Football Network that nobody from the organization bothered to reach out and thank him after his release.

At the NFL's annual league meetings in Phoenix, head coach Dan Campbell addressed this directly.

"Look, I'm going to give nothing but flowers to Deck for everything he did for us and what he's done for this organization," Campbell said. "And look, I'm sure as hell not going to call him right now, not after all this article came out. But, I'll call him. I'm going to call him in time. But, I want him to know it's a real phone call. We appreciate everything he did."

Now Detroit is moving fast to fill that void. Campbell has already spoken about how Penei Sewell is ready to slide over to left tackle in case the Lions need him to.

The franchise has already signed Larry Borom in free agency, and they plan to select an offensive tackle at pick No. 17 in the 2026 NFL Draft

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Written by

Abhay Bharti

Edited by

Aadesh Dhote