It was funny in the moment, and funnier when you watch the video that’s gone viral in the weeks since.
Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams rushed over to defend running back Jahmyr Gibbs when New York Jets defensive end Kingsley Enagbare shoved Gibbs after Gibbs heel-clicked his way into the end zone with the go-ahead touchdown late in the Lions’ Week 3 victory at Ford Field.
Williams pointed at Enagbare, as if to suggest the pass rusher deserved a penalty for a late hit on Gibbs.
When no flag came from a nearby official, Williams approached Enagbare, shoved the defender,
then jogged away from a bigger confrontation only to bring back several of his teammates, like a little kid enlisting the help of his older brother’s friends to confront a schoolyard bully.
Williams pointed his left hand at a pile of Lions celebrating the score in the back of the end zone, and in an instant one of the biggest, baddest players on the team, right guard Tate Ratledge, sprang to the front of the group and sauntered over toward Enagbare, chest out, taking up for his teammate.
“You've got to have a little intimidation, got to puff the chest out a little bit,” Ratledge said Wednesday, Oct. 21.
Ratledge insists he doesn’t remember what Williams said to get his attention, but he laughed when a reporter reminded him of the play Tuesday.
“I don’t know,” Ratledge said. “I’m halfway laughing because the way he ran over there, it’s like, after you see the video, it’s even funnier.”
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Lions assistant head coach Scottie Montgomery chuckled at the exchange, too. He said a friend texted him video of the incident during last week’s bye with a note that said, “You guys are doing things the right way,” because of how Ratledge went to stick up for his teammate.
“He is the protector out there,” Montgomery said. “He is a little bit of that bully element, not just because of his size, but his physical demeanor. It's the way that he takes care of his teammates.”
A second-round pick out of Georgia last year who’s started all 22 games in his career at right guard, Ratledge said he takes the enforcer part of his job seriously.
At its root, his role is to keep Jared Goff upright and defenders off Gibbs, and he and the rest of the line are doing a good job of that five games into the season.
“I feel like as an offensive lineman in general, you try to take that role as an enforcer because if somebody hits Jared, we’re going to be the first ones over there,” he said. “We’re the biggest guys on the field, so why not protect our guys against our opponent?”
Montgomery singled out Ratledge as a breakout candidate this summer, and so far, the second-year lineman has made good on that projection.
He’s the only Lions offensive lineman who hasn’t allowed a sack this year, he’s helped make Gibbs one of the Offensive Player of the Year favorites, and Montgomery said his overall play has been “what we thought” it would be.
“His pad level from last year to this year is completely different,” Montgomery said. “Also, his confidence is completely different. And we've had different people beside him, which that's difficult for a young player to have a center beside him for a certain part of the training camp, switch and still be able to continue to stay on the move. So he's done a good job of that.”
Ratledge, who’s played most of the season between rookie right tackle Blake Miller and center Juice Scruggs, whose stint as a fill-in is set to end this week with Cade Mays due back from a right wrist fracture, said he feels mostly positive about the way he’s played this year, too.
He’s been more conscious about keeping his pads low at the line of scrimmage, and he said he’s thinking less on the field.
On Monday, he recalled his forgettable NFL debut from last year against the Green Bay Packers, when he turned a defensive tackle loose on his own 3-yard line for a near safety and missed another line call that led to a sack.
“Week 1 I was like, ‘Holy [crap], what am I doing? Do I belong out here?’” Ratledge said. “And then toward the end of the year, you kind of find that confidence and start playing football like you should, and then I think some of that’s carried over to this year.”
This week, Ratledge is in a different spot as he prepares to face that same Packers team for the third time in his career. He’s trending toward being one of the better guards in football and doing so while protecting his teammates at all costs.
“I love how excited he gets when we make plays,” Goff said. “Oftentimes the O-linemen, they're just happy to do their job, play works well, get off the field, come back on the field, do their job. He's into it and he's excited and is excited for us, excited when he makes a big block, but really excited when we score and it's fun. It's fun to have a guy with that type of energy and passion and want-to and all that stuff. It's great.”
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lions' Tate Ratledge is 'the protector out there' as intimidating guard
