ALLEN PARK, Mich. – The evolution of a championship team varies by time and by tests. The simplest pattern – get good, stay good, get great, stay great, get there, get the trophy – rarely unfolds as planned.<\/p>\n
Coaches leave. Injuries hit. Players retire. It crests, it drops, and inevitably hits an inflection point. In some ways, the Lions are at that point.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe year of the reckoning,\u201d running back David Montgomery said as the Lions opened training camp Sunday. \u201cWe\u2019re tired of being close. It\u2019s cool to be close at first, but you don\u2019t want to get comfortable with being close all the time. You want to finish it. This is the year for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lions indeed should be close again, based on their timeframe and talented roster. But after two consecutive playoff appearances, they don\u2019t seem appreciably closer, with their depth chart unusually unsettled.<\/p>\n
They have to rebuild their offensive line after Frank Ragnow\u2019s retirement and Kevin Zeitler\u2019s departure. They must adjust to new offensive and defensive coordinators, John Morton and Kelvin Sheppard. Injuries ravaged them last season, and they announced Sunday defensive lineman Levi Onwuzurike already had undergone season-ending knee surgery. Cornerback Ennis Rakestraw also went down early in the first practice with a reported chest injury.<\/p>\n
The Lions are favored to win the NFC North for the third consecutive time, but others are rising. The Vikings and Packers made the playoffs, and the Bears are perpetual quasi-threats. The schedule is tougher than ever. After the Lions\u2019 rocket ride last season – explosive games, plumes of points, 15-2 record – fizzled in a humbling 45-31 playoff loss at home to Washington, perspective was delivered, whether the Lions needed it or not.<\/p>\n
There are no do-overs in sports. But there are adjustments and fresh enlightenment. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a reckoning after a year of Super Bowl talk, but there\u2019s a tempering of outside expectations and enthusiasm. Not from Dan Campbell, of course.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe message to the team was really what it\u2019s been all along – it\u2019s about who we are, what we believe in and staying hungry,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cPutting the work in, not being content and I believe we\u2019ll be just fine. We\u2019ve got the right guys, and they\u2019ve been building it for a long time. There are dudes that are going to be ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hits and misses<\/p>\n
Old dudes in new places, new dudes in old places. Rosters churn every year on every team, and I\u2019m not here to be an alarmist. The Lions still have elite offensive talent, from Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs in the backfield to quarterback Jared Goff to pass-catching weapons Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams and Sam LaPorta. They still have Penei Sewell and Taylor Decker to anchor their line, although Decker isn\u2019t healthy yet.<\/p>\n
On defense, they bring back pass-rushing star Aidan Hutchinson, who had a scorching start last season with 7.5 sacks in five games before suffering a broken leg, an ugly omen. By the end, the Lions were down as many as nine starters on defense, and Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels tore them apart.<\/p>\n
Goff threw three interceptions in that loss, and in the behind-the-scenes Netflix series \u201cQuarterback,\u201d he confessed the performance would \u201ceat me alive the whole offseason.\u201d The loss ate away at the Lions\u2019 sheen of invincibility after a two-year climb that included a 27-7 regular-season record and a trip to the NFC championship game, where they squandered a 24-7 halftime lead and lost to the 49ers.<\/p>\n
They spent most of last season as a Super Bowl favorite, despite the spate of injuries. According to oddsmakers, the Lions are still in the top five among the Eagles, Chiefs, Ravens and Bills, projected to win 10 or 11 games. Cautionary tale: Buffalo has made it to the playoffs the past six seasons without reaching the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n
Campbell isn\u2019t focusing on playoff paths or homefield advantage on the first day of camp. Mostly, he\u2019s focusing on the trenches, where the Lions have taken major hits.<\/p>\n
Two years ago, Brad Holmes drafted guys for depth, not immediate playing time. Now his top two picks – defensive lineman Tyleik Williams and offensive lineman Tate Ratledge – almost assuredly will be needed quickly. Ragnow\u2019s retirement wasn\u2019t completely unexpected, and Ratledge, a second-rounder from Georgia, appears to have the tools and temperament to start right away.<\/p>\n
Williams, the first-round pick from Ohio State, could step in alongside DJ Reader on the defensive front. Star Alim McNeill will be out until midseason, recovering from knee surgery. Hutchinson should be back to his dominant self at rush end, but injury histories are a concern with Marcus Davenport, Josh Paschal and Mekhi Wingo. There\u2019s also some uncertainty about the status of linebacker Alex Anzalone, who\u2019s entering the final year of his contract.<\/p>\n
Young and hungry<\/p>\n
The Lions weren\u2019t overly active in free-agency, and Campbell knows the narratives are coming after an offseason of brain drain. His savvy offensive coordinator, Ben Johnson, left to become head coach of the Bears. Aaron Glenn took his respected experience to the Jets, leaving Sheppard to take over as a first-time coordinator.<\/p>\n
Morton might not be as wildly creative as Johnson, but he\u2019ll find plenty of opportunities for Gibbs and Montgomery, the most-productive tandem in the league. The Lions always will hammer the running game, and have done so behind a top-notch offensive line, coached by Hank Fraley. It\u2019s now their primary concern, figuring out if Ratledge can start as a rookie, and whether Graham Glasgow and an array of other guards can slide in.<\/p>\n
\u201cConcern? My eyes are on the O-Line,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cI want to see what that unit\u2019s going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s not the only one. Yes, Holmes needs to find a pass rusher or two. But offensive line is the Lions\u2019 long-standing strength and it\u2019s in serious flux.<\/p>\n
They get an early start to fix the flux, playing in the preseason Hall of Fame Game July 31 against the Chargers. Last season\u2019s ending ate away at a lot of them, including Montgomery. His power running produced 775 yards but he was injured late, as Gibbs\u2019 profile rose.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis probably is the hungriest I\u2019ve been,\u201d said Montgomery, entering his seventh season. \u201cI feel a lot of people kind of forget that I\u2019m here in the offense too. \u2026 We got a bunch of young, hungry guys (on the offensive line) that are learning fast. They all have the same potential to be what we\u2019ve been in recent years. Unique thing about this league, everything changes every year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Basically, a reckoning is always beckoning. The Lions are entering their third full season of championship contention, and getting antsy. But while getting close can be frustrating, staying close is the challenge too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLEN PARK, Mich. – The evolution of a championship team varies by time and by tests. The simplest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[265,637,53,391,146,113,2506,7,636,110,147,122,640,633,634,631,6,1257,252,632,635,9,638],"class_list":{"0":"post-229472","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-american-football","9":"tag-american-football-teams","10":"tag-buffalo-bills","11":"tag-chicago-bears","12":"tag-detroit","13":"tag-detroit-lions","14":"tag-detroitlions","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-gridiron-football-variants","17":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","18":"tag-lions","19":"tag-national-football-league","20":"tag-national-football-league-franchise-relocations","21":"tag-national-football-league-seasons","22":"tag-national-football-league-teams","23":"tag-national-football-league-teams-seasons","24":"tag-nfl","25":"tag-quarterback","26":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","27":"tag-seasons-in-american-football","28":"tag-seasons-in-american-sport","29":"tag-sports","30":"tag-team-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}