A repeat of the Calvin Johnson situation is less likely to happen for the Lions and Frank Ragnow

There's just something about Detroit Lions players retiring, man. They seem to be elevated a little more, and that's probably because you never really seem to see them coming, and it's always the best players. 

Barry Sanders shocked everyone when he retired in 1998, and then Calvin Johnson shocked some people when he retired after the 2015 season. At least there were some rumors of the latter before it happened. 

Now Frank Ragnow is retiring while still in his 20s. It feels similar, doesn't it? One of the best players at his position is walking away early. 

Speaking of Johnson, after his retirement, there was some bad blood there for a minute. The reason for that was that the Lions wanted part of Johnson's signing bonus back, and they took $1.6 million of it. 

This caused contention between the Lions and Johnson for a few years, and eventually, the two parties came to an agreement, and now Johnson is a big ambassador for the Lions and is always around. 

Now that Ragnow has retired, there's been some concern from fans that the Lions might do this again. It feels safe to say that they won't this time. 

The reason it feels safe is that there's really nothing to take. Ragnow had an option bonus of $18 million in 2022, but that's triggered and is pretty much all paid up at this point. $3.6 million of that will show up over the course of the next two years, but that's guaranteed and can't be touched. It's essentially already been paid, is one way to look at it. 

Theoretically, the Lions could decide to take half of that $3.6 million back, but it's really a bad idea and it's not something the league tends to do.  

Really, the only type of bonus that Ragnow had left was a $750 thousand roster bonus in 2026. The only way to have received that bonus would have been to be on the roster. 

So that's that. It's safe to not expect any type of contention between the Lions and Ragnow. In fact, Ragnow has already praised the Lions for how great they've been throughout this whole process.