{"id":847846,"date":"2026-04-01T20:26:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T20:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/847846\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T20:26:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T20:26:29","slug":"why-detroit-lions-still-believe-team-is-not-far-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/847846\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Detroit Lions Still Believe Team Is ‘Not Far Off’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Detroit Lions <\/a>remain confident the team is in good position to remain competitive in 2026. <\/p>\n

Missing the postseason in 2025 was a significant setback, forcing the front office and coaching staff to take a deeper dive into what went south. <\/p>\n

Head coach Dan Campbell, speaking with WJBK Fox 2 Detroit<\/a> at the annual league meeting, shared the team is still in a good position to compete for a Lombardi Trophy, based on the core group of players that were acquired in the NFL Draft. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat is it. That\u2019s what we believe. We know that other teams have done it different, we both know that. There\u2019s different ways to get to where you want to go,” said Campbell. “We\u2019ve always believed, he and I both, that\u2019s where it starts. We\u2019ve got the hard part down.”<\/p>\n

Detroit features many offensive weapons and a young defense <\/a>that is learning Kelvin Sheppard’s defensive principles. <\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve got the quarterback, we\u2019ve got two receivers, we\u2019ve got a tight end, we\u2019ve got the back, we\u2019ve got a freakin\u2019 tackle, we\u2019ve got freakin\u2019 Hutch, we\u2019ve got Jack, we\u2019ve got Branch,” said Campbell. “So we\u2019ve got these pieces in certain areas, and then we\u2019ve just got to fill in around it and help complement those guys. We\u2019re not far off. Nobody said it\u2019s gonna be easy, but the future looks bright<\/a> if you\u2019re asking me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Detroits free agency strategy has remained disciplined, despite many supporters clamoring for the team to add more high-priced, high-end talent to the roster. <\/p>\n

General manager Brad Holmes has again looked to and has been successful in adding players on affordable, short-term contracts. <\/p>\n

Center Cade Mays filled an obvious need at center, but the remaining free agents are mostly role players. <\/p>\n

\u201cBrad and I have been pleased. There again, every year, the hard thing is you lose guys that you really depended on and that you think a lot of and unfortunately you can\u2019t keep everybody. Those guys that we have really leaned on, we\u2019re gonna miss those guys,” said Campbell. “But it\u2019s also exciting to bring in the next crop of guys <\/a>that you feel like fit what you\u2019re about. <\/p>\n

“We feel like we\u2019ve done that with our guys, and we\u2019re not done,” Campbell commented further. “But, we feel like these guys, these pieces in free agency, will fit the core of this team and what we\u2019re about. And then you go into the draft.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Detroit Lions remain confident the team is in good position to remain competitive in 2026. Missing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2071],"tags":[146,113,2506,7,147,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-847846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-detroit","9":"tag-detroit-lions","10":"tag-detroitlions","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-lions","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116331334280672778","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847846","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=847846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}