Ah, the offensive lineman. No position in the game of football toils in more anonymity. Even, apparently, when we’re talking about one of the world’s most skilled and charismatic offensive linemen and a guy who runs his own outdoor adventures channel on YouTube.
Frank Ragnow needs no introduction to fans of Arkansas football or the Detroit Lions. After a stellar college career for the Razorbacks, he was taken at No. 20 in the 2018 NFL Draft and emerged as perhaps the NFL’s best center in Detroit, racking up an All-Pro selection in 2020. Sure, Ragnow went down with a season-ending toe injury in Week 4 of the 2021 campaign, but he doesn’t deserve to be wiped from national consciousness for that.
Yet that’s what temporarily happened on Thursday night in the aftermath of Treylon Burks’ selection in the 2022 NFL Draft. With the eighteenth pick of the night, Burks became Arkansas football’s first NFL Draft first-rounder since Ragnow. That was only five years ago, with a guy who is far from anonymous, yet the SEC Network somehow forgot all about it.
Here’s a Tweet from one of the channel’s news editors:
As you would expect, Zimmerman was immediately raked over the coals for this oversight from Arkansas fans.
Twenty five minutes later, he Tweeted this out: “Arkansas has corrected their release to say Burks is the highest drafted Razorback since McFadden in 2008 and first Hog selected in the first round since Frank Ragnow in 2018 when he was selected 20th overall by Detroit.”
I don’t doubt that this oversight was initially a typo. But it should be on ESPN/SEC Network employees to think about whether something makes sense before posting it. Like, does it really make sense for an SEC West program like the Razorbacks to go 14 straight years without a first round pick? That’s extremely hard to do given how talent-rich all SEC West teams have become.
Still, bravo to the SEC Network for at least explaining the issue to the public. That’s better than CBS, which straight up deleted mention of the Arkansas basketball team’s win over then No. 1 Auburn in one of its stories, then a half day later edited it without mention of the issue.
I just feel bad for Frank Ragnow. Poor guy has done a tremendous job branding himself and doing all the right things over the years. You’d think he would be more memorable to SEC Network folks by now.
Oh well. At least he still as his “Grizzly Man Outdoors” tribe, where they will always know who he is:
Treylon Burks and the Tennessee Titans
Burks should be a bit more recent in the minds of SEC Network personnel, but even he had his own moment of ridiculousness, as one Arkansas football fan found out on her news feed:
Yikes. Fortunately, those media members interviewing Burks after his selection called him by his right name. Here are some excerpts from the interview:
On whether he sees himself as a replacement for AJ Brown:
Treylon Burks: I wouldn’t say I’m his replacement, but at the same time, like I said, I’m just thankful for the opportunity that they believed in me to make that trade and believe in me to go out there and represent that organization like it’s supposed to be represented. That’s what I’m going to do.
On expectations for his rookie year:
Treylon Burks: Honestly, just to come in there and make a big impact on the team. Change the culture around, and just make that brotherhood a lot stronger and just be a team player.
On how he describes his own game:
Treylon Burks: I would say big, fast, physical and fearless. That’s my main thing. My great-grandpa always told me to be fearless. Out there on the field, everybody’s human. [Across the line of scrimmage] that’s a man, just like I’m a man across from me. Just go play my game and be myself.
On his familiarity with Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry:
Treylon Burks: … I played Madden with Ryan and Derrick Henry… To have those type of leaders will make me go even harder every day in practice and everything. And be the best player that I can be for them. I have tremendous respect for [Tannehill]. He takes care of his business the right way. Everybody that takes care of their business and just be yourself, it shows on the field. That’s one thing that I really like about him.
On what he felt when he heard his named called:
The emotions, they wasn’t high. Just because I’m just the type of person that I’m grateful for wherever I go. So I didn’t work my nerves up just because other guys went ahead of me or none of that, just because I know who I am. I know that God has a plan for me.
Arkansas football sportscaster John Nabors dove into Burks’ situation immediately after the selection.
“Am I going to sit here and say that Ryan Tannehill is the greatest quarterback that Treylon Burks could have gone to and played with? No, but the Tennessee Titans is a really good organization and a team that was a great team in the regular season and went to the playoffs last year… They won their division outright. And it certainly seems like Mike Vrabel has done a really good job with him as well. So I think it’s a good situation for him.”
Nabors then went to praise Burks for declining an invite to attending the NFL Draft in person in Las Vegas, instead opting for a much smaller watch party affair at a house in Searcy, Ark. (Burks’ hometown in Warren):
“One of the things that I really… I’ve always liked about him is he’s just a simple, hardworking guy. I don’t mean that to sound in an insulting way, because it’s not at all. It’s just, you could just tell he doesn’t care about the flash and pizzazz of going to Vegas and having the crazy suits on and having the marketing guys with him and all that stuff. “He’s just a football player and he just kind of wants to be comfortable in his own zone and in his own element.”
Listen to Nabors’ complete breakdown here.
Frank Ragnow and Treylon Burks
These two may be the two most outdoors sports-loving Razorbacks of the last decade. Here’s Ragnow fishing:
And more on Treylon Burks and hog hunting:
See our latest here:
