The Lions Didn't Lose Their Talent. They Lost Their Edge.

Fixing Detroit: Getting Back to What The Lions Do Best

The 2025 season was supposed to be a coronation. Coming off a franchise-best 15-2 record

and back-to-back NFC North titles, the Detroit Lions looked like a team ready to make a real run at a Super Bowl. Instead, they stumbled to a 9-8 finish, lost six of their final ten games, and were eliminated from playoff contention after a Christmas Day collapse against the Minnesota Vikings that featured a staggering six turnovers. For a franchise that spent decades being the punchline of the NFL, missing the playoffs in a year with this much talent stings.

What made Detroit so compelling over the previous two seasons was not just the wins. It was

the mentality. An us-against-the-world edge that ran through everything they did, from how they blocked on the offensive line to how they chased the quarterback on defense. That identity was the engine. When it hummed, the Lions were one of the most difficult teams in the league to prepare for. The 2025 season was a reminder of how quickly that can unravel. Finding it again is the offseason’s actual job. And if they can recapture it, everything else below has a chance to work.

Dan Campbell is still the right coach, Brad Holmes is still the right GM, and the core of this

roster, Jared Goff, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jahmyr Gibbs, Aidan Hutchinson, and Penei Sewell, is

still worth building around. The question heading into 2026 is whether the organization can

identify what actually broke down last year and address it with honesty, rather than papering

over the cracks.

The Offensive Line Needs Investment

The most glaring issue in 2025 was up front. The Lions ranked 31st in pass block win rate and

20th in run block win rate. That is a remarkable fall from a unit that was once considered one of the best in the league. The offensive line was central to everything Detroit wanted to do under Dan Campbell, and when it stopped functioning, the whole offense suffered.

That identity-driven, physical style of play requires guys up front who buy in completely. The

Lions cannot grind teams down or impose their will without that foundation, so the investment here goes well beyond fixing a rankings problem.

Penei Sewell remains the only high-end starter locked in at the position going forward. Taylor

Decker, who had weighed retirement due to ongoing health concerns, ultimately requested and received his release after a decade with the team; a departure that left the Lions without a blindside protector heading into 2026. Holmes brought in center Cade Mays in free agency, a quietly dependable interior blocker who has allowed just 21 pressures and zero sacks across more than 750 pass-blocking snaps over the last two seasons. Holmes paid a fair price for a known quantity. Holmes also made the splashier investment the line demanded, using the 17th overall pick on Blake Miller, a tackle out of Clemson who started all 54 games of his college career and set the school record for career snaps. Miller is expected to compete on the right side, with Sewell flipping to left tackle to fill the void left by Decker's departure.

Whether Miller can be the plug-and-play answer at tackle remains to be seen, but committing both cash and a first-round pick to the position is the right call. A team that plays with that kind of edge needs the horses up front to back it up.

Find an Offensive Coordinator Who Fits the Room

When Ben Johnson left to become head coach of the Chicago Bears, the Lions lost more than a coordinator. They lost the architect of one of the most creative and efficient offenses in the NFL. His replacement never quite found the right footing. Campbell ended up taking over play-calling himself midway through the season, which speaks both to his competitive instincts and to how far things had fallen.

Detroit has since hired Drew Petzing as the new offensive coordinator. Petzing has experience as a play-caller and brings a fresh voice, but the proof will be in execution. The Lions need someone who understands how to leverage Jared Goff's strengths, reading the field quickly and getting the ball out in rhythm, while also building a run game that makes defenses respect what Gibbs can do. That balance made Detroit elite under Johnson. Rebuilding it is the most important football decision the organization makes this offseason, and it only works if the players around Petzing are locked in and playing with something to prove.

The Defense Has Upside If It Stays Healthy

Detroit's defense was not a disaster in 2025. Aidan Hutchinson posted over 100 pressures and 14.5 sacks in a healthy, full season, a dominant individual performance and a reminder of how disruptive this team can be when things break right. The problem was that things kept breaking in the wrong direction. Safety Kerby Joseph was lost for the season in Week 6, and Brian Branch, the Pro Bowl safety who is one of the most versatile and impactful defensive backs in football, tore his Achilles in Week 14, effectively gutting one of the better safety pairings in the league.

Branch faces a recovery timeline of eight to twelve months, meaning there is a chance he starts 2026 on the sideline. That uncertainty makes building depth around him essential. The Lions added veterans to cover, but the ideal outcome is both players finding their way back on the field together.

Detroit traded up to use their second-round pick, 44th overall, on edge rusher Derrick Moore out of Michigan, a physical bull-rusher who led the Wolverines with 10.5 tackles for loss and 10 sacks in his final season. Moore is a natural fit opposite Hutchinson in defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard's scheme, and there is something fitting about pairing two Michigan men on the edge. The Lions doubled down in the fourth round by taking linebacker Jimmy Rolder, also out of Michigan, who led the team in tackles last season. The Michigan pipeline is quietly becoming a cornerstone of this defense, and bringing in players from that program, with its own reputation for toughness and blue-collar football, fits the culture Campbell is trying to restore.

Win the Division Again

Everything else is secondary to winning the NFC North. The Bears won the division last season at 11-5, the Packers made the playoffs for a third consecutive year, and the Vikings acquired Kyler Murray in the offseason and are expected to be more competitive in 2026. This is a tough division, and Detroit has to treat it that way.

The good news is that Detroit has the sixth-easiest schedule in the league in 2026, based on

opponents' 2025 win percentages. That should help a team still finding its footing after a difficult year. But easy schedules have a way of becoming irrelevant if you lose the games that matter most, and for the Lions, those games are always the ones inside the division.

The talent is here. The coaching staff has proven it can get results. Holmes acknowledged this offseason that urgency needed to be pushed up on everything, and that while the Lions never forgot their identity, keeping it at the top of mind was critical. That kind of honest self-

assessment is a good starting point.

Now they have to back it up. The offensive line investment pays off when this team plays with

an edge. The new coordinator succeeds when the players around him are hungry. The rookies develop faster when the culture demands it. All of it connects back to the same thing: that us-against-the-world mentality that made Detroit one of the most compelling teams in football. It was never just about schemes or rosters. It was about who these guys believed they were. Getting back to that belief is the whole task.