The Detroit Lions led the NFL in offense in 2024 and brought back all the skill position players responsible. Detroit was in the top four in every metric for offensive success last season: yards per carry, yards per pass attempt, third-down conversion rate, points scored, net yardage.

Some of that success came at the hands of a relatively soft schedule of opposing defenses in 2024. There’s a chicken vs. egg argument to be made about if the statistical struggles of Lions opponents were the result of playing Jared Goff, Jahmyr Gibbs, Amon-Ra St. Brown et al, of course. That could change some in 2025.

Detroit’s schedule draw looks a lot tougher on the defensive side of the ball. They face several very strong defenses and a couple more that look like they could elevate up the NFL’s defensive pantheon in the coming season. Here’s how the opposing defenses rank ahead of the 2025 season.

14. Cincinnati Bengals

That the Bengals can rank as the worst defense the Lions will face says more about the difficulty of Detroit’s schedule than the Cincinnati defense, which (probably) has reigning sack champ Trey Hendrickson, a solid LB in Logan Wilson and decent potential in the secondary. New coordinator Al Golden has some work to do to bring the misshapen pieces together.

13. Washington Commanders

The Commanders had an awful run defense in 2024 and didn’t appear to get better, losing formidable DL Jonathan Allen and second-leading tackler, safety Jeremy Chinn. Still, Frankie Luvu and Bobby Wagner are a great LB tandem, and the youthful secondary has some upward potential.

12. Los Angeles Rams

The Rams nicely mitigated the loss of Aaron Donald by drafting DROY Jared Verse and strong second-rounder Braden Fiske. L.A. is precociously impressive and fairly deep up front. They’ll need to be awesome again because the Rams might have a bottom-3 back seven on paper. Not one Rams starter at LB or DB would see the field in Detroit.

Chicago’s secondary is very good, especially if Jaquan Brisker returns to full form after injury. Throw in LBs T.J. Edwards and Tremaine Edmunds, and the back seven can be great. Montez Sweat is a good alpha dog pass rusher, and adding Grady Jarrett inside can only help. But the talent didn’t congeal into a strong unit in 2024 (27th in yards, 31st in yards per pass attempt allowed) and they’re mixing in a new coaching staff led by DC Dennis Allen. Chicago could be a lot better than this. But these Bears haven’t earned the benefit of the doubt.

A solid young core added Haason Reddick and Anthony Walker to a defense still led by ageless Lavonte David. Not a great pass rush or a lot of depth here, but Tampa Bay is as good up the middle as any team the Lions will face. That the Bucs are really good precisely where the Lions like to attack makes them a potentially tougher matchup than this ranking might suggest.

Adding No. 3 overall pick Abdul Carter to the already-strong pass rush gives the Giants defense a real dominant dimension. New York has the core of a good secondary augmented by newcomer Paulson Adebo, a big free agent cornerback many a Lions fan coveted this offseason.. Big questions remain in overall run defense and depth up the middle, where the LBs need to play to their potential more often.

8. Dallas Cowboys

Akin to the Lions a year ago, Dallas suffered through many consequential defensive injuries–notably in the secondary. When healthy, this core group was a very formidable unit in 2023. Led by Micah Parsons, the pass rush is capable of causing major problems. The Cowboys brought in a lot of reinforcements who might have better name value than actual on-field value, however.

This Browns defense could rank even higher — or lower. Myles Garrett is the best defensive player in football, and the Browns sport arguably the best 1-2-3 CB group in the league. Questions at linebacker, No. 2 EDGE and the unknown warm body playing safety next to Grant Delpit add a lot of undesirable variability to Jim Schwartz’s unit. They led the NFL in missed tackles a year ago and injury questions cloud their best tackler, linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah.

6. Pittsburgh Steelers

The big trade bringing Jalen Ramsey to Pittsburgh shakes things up, though subtracting Minkah Fitzpatrick in the deal does hurt some. The front and pass rush, led by T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith, is outstanding. Ramsey pushes newcomer (and old Lions friend) Darius Slay to the No. 2 CB spot where he should be better. Much like Detroit last year, if the starting 11 stay healthy, this is a very good defense. If the Steelers lose even one defensive starter–especially Watt–they’re quite vulnerable.

5. Green Bay Packers

The Packers are quite solid across the formation on defense. Even after losing top CB Jaire Alexander, Green Bay has good talent at all three levels, led by EDGE Rashan Gary, DT Kenny Clark, LB Edgerrin Cooper and S Xavier McKinney. If they find someone besides Gary who can play EDGE and get more players to have good games at the same time (an ongoing struggle), this Packers D can be great.

4. Minnesota Vikings

Lions fans might not recognize just how good the Minnesota defense was in 2024 because Detroit put up 31 on the Vikings both times they played. Only one other team broke 30. DC Brian Flores has a versatile playmaking unit that led the league in INTs but also ranked second on 3rd down conversions and second in yards per carry allowed on 1st down. If Flores breaks character and ever figures out how to scheme against Jared Goff (and he hasn’t shown a clue there yet), look out…

3. Baltimore Ravens

The best run defense in the league in yards per carry, the Ravens also finished 6th in sacks. Baltimore got better in the back end by adding first-round safety Malaki Starks and ex-Packers CB Jaire Alexander, which should help a pass defense that looks a lot worse by volume numbers than actual performance; the Ravens were 31st in total yards allowed but ranked 8th in completion percentage and 14th in yards per pass attempt.

2. Kansas City Chiefs

The Chiefs have consistently been a top-8 defense the last few years, led by superb DT Chris Jones. Steve Spagnuolo’s unit plays very well together, notably in coverage behind a deep pass rush. They’re a group that doesn’t have a lot of big names but also doesn’t have any real weak points outside of safety depth and a true alpha EDGE. Guys like Leo Chenal and George Karlaftis are better than you think they are.

1. Philadelphia Eagles

Philadelphia won the Super Bowl in no small part by having the NFL’s best defense in both scoring and yards. The Eagles lost a couple of key pieces up front, but they have drafted well and developed depth to withstand the losses. The Eagles are somewhat uncomfortably reliant on rookies for depth up the middle, but this remains the gold standard of defenses in 2025.