The Detroit Lions' Turnaround Has Been Awesome

I was so down on the Lions, man. I mean, can you blame me? I had a question about this regime from the beginning, and that 1-6 start this year really just killed the mojo. It seemed like it was going to be another one of those seasons in which the best course of action was to openly tank for a quarterback in the draft, but over the last seven games, something kind of magical has happened. We are a long way away from declaring the Brad Holmes/Dan Campbell era an overwhelming success, but regardless of where this thing ends, year two of this rebuild has been a success. 

I'm not going to sit here and act like the 2022 New York Jets are god's gift to football. Zack Wilson still is not a very good quarterback, even though he did play fie yesterday. At the same time, yesterday's game had all the makings of a classic Detroit Lions loss. You're coming from a good win against a solid Vikings team. You're a road favorite in a game you need to win to stay alive in the playoff hunt. You get out to an early lead, the offense stalls and you give up a late touchdown. It seemed like another inevitable S.O.L. kind of game. Then Ben Johnson, who's done an excellent job this season as the offensive coordinator, dialed up the call of the year. 

I'm not at the point where I can definitively say that Dan Campbell is everything we hoped for, but he has floored me in the second half of the season. The staff, which I had serious question marks about (especially Aaron Glenn as the defensive coordinator), has done a good job. I never had any questions about whether or not the players were going to buy in. Campbell is a likable personality. He played the game for a long time, and it's a huge part of what makes him so appealing. So while I'm not at a point where I'm going to say that he's a Super Bowl winning coach, he's done an excellent job of the last seven games.

There's no such thing as a bad win in the NFL, but what's made the Lions' recent stretch of success so unique has been how quality these wins are. These are quality wins. They're not beating up on the Texans. They're beating teams that are over .500 who are legit playoff contenders. But even beyond what I've seen from the coaching staff, this team has good players. I know that's an elementary analysis, but trust me, in Detroit, that has not always been the case. Amon-Ra St. Brown is one of the best receivers in football. They have an excellent offensive line that's done a great job keeping Jared Goff upright in the pocket this season, which is a necessity for him because he's not a mobile quarterback. There are still a lot of holes on the team. Their secondary isn't anything to write home about, but even on your worst days, something still feels ALMOST different.

I'm still deciding whether this era will be the golden age of Detroit Lions football, but even when they've been good, there's something I've always found somewhat unlikable about the Detroit Lions. Even some of those teams I had with Stafford and Megatron always seemed to have this kind of helter-skelter mentality. You always knew that the flaws were evident, and they rarely did anything to address them, and when they did, it seemed like it failed. 

Maybe the players are just a reflection of their head coach's personality, but I find this team likable. Starting a season 1-6 in the NFL is a death sentence for most teams. We've seen a lot of teams just straight-up fold, yet the Lions kind of keep on chugging. Gun to my head, do I think the Lions will make the playoffs? No, probably not. But they hit the Vegas over/under in wins, which was 6.5, and I speak for all Lions fans when I say that the expectation wasn't necessarily to make the playoffs. It was to see the wheels spinning again. And that's what we're seeing. They're playing well. Good for them.