Getty Jim Caldwell coaching the Lions in 2017.
The Detroit Lions have seen no shortage of opinions about how they will trend during the 2020 season, and a turn has been taken on the subject that will be quite interesting to fans.
Recently, Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com was taking a closer look at the rosters across the NFC North ahead of this coming season. An important conclusion for Sessler is that the Lions aren’t elite, but also aren’t terrible. There’s a lack of strengths but a lack of weaknesses as well. All of that could add up to a return to the Jim Caldwell days in terms of record.
Rosenthal writes:
“The pass rush needs work, but there aren’t a lot of major needs or defined strengths on this roster. Most position groups look good, not great, which could lead to another good-not-great record like we saw from Detroit for most of the Jim Caldwell salad days.”
It would be interesting to see how ownership would treat such a situation. Notably, the Lions moved on from Caldwell because of his inability to have elite seasons and get the team over the top. Matt Patricia has struggled with these same things, so would it be considered a success for the team to get back to the Caldwell type 7-9 or 9-7 type years?
In a “playoffs or else” type 2020 year, that’s something to remember.
Average Season Projected For Lions During 2020
Recently, USA Today writer Nate Davis took a look at projecting the season for every team, and had the Lions going 7-9. It was a dismal record prediction on the whole, but Davis might be a bit more optimistic than many as it relates to how the season will end.
Here’s how @ByNateDavis sees the upcoming NFL season playing out. t.co/05IsoLQX5R
Davis explained his prediction:
“They were quietly competitive in 2019 prior to the season-ending back injury to QB Matthew Stafford, who was in the midst of a career year. Rookies Jeff Okudah and D’Andre Swift should provide a bump for a team that was also active in free agency at a time when the jobs of GM Bob Quinn and coach Matt Patricia appear to be on the line. Might be a rocky start with just one home game apiece in September and October.”
The Lions will have to rise up and claim a few of those home games in the early part of the year if they want the finish to be more respectable than 7-9, but certainly this projection gives them a bit of wiggle room to do just that.
Safe to say this type of projection would be similar to the Caldwell days.
Peter King Claims Lions ‘Jobbed’ With 2020 Schedule
After the 2020 schedule was revealed to the masses last week, NBC Sports analyst Peter King took a look at breaking some elements down after the fact in a Football Morning In America column. As it relates to the Lions, King mentioned them once and said he feels as if the team was “jobbed” as it relates to the slate they will play this coming season. The reason? Some travel oddities that could get the team off to a poor start they struggle to recover from.
King wrote:
“Who got jobbed? Detroit. Not terribly, but the Lions have one home game in September, one home game in October, three home games in November, and three home games after Dec. 1. Detroit is home one day between Sept. 13 and Halloween. Not optimal. If they start 1-5, the Lions will be playing for the draft for two months.”
The Lions know about playing for the draft early on, and that’s something they need to avoid in 2020 in order to save some jobs this coming season. While Detroit’s schedule features road games, it does give them a shot to be able to win a few, starting with the Bears, Cardinals, Jaguars and Falcons early in the season.
If the Lions do lose those games, however, they could obviously be in trouble of spiraling out of control on the season.
Lions Projected For Woeful 2020 Season
Many others aren’t especially high on the Lions having a great year whatsoever. One such person is Gary Davenport of Bleacher Report. Recently, Davenport predicted records for every team in the league by division, and when it came to the NFC North, he saw the Lions occupying a familiar spot.
Last place.
Davenport had Detroit with a 5-11 record, which would be an improvement on 2019’s finish, but only a modest one, and likely not the type of strides the team needs to make in order to satisfy ownership ahead of a critical season on the field.
Davenport wrote:
“The Detroit Lions have made the playoffs only three times since the turn of the century. They haven’t won a playoff game since 1991 and haven’t won 10 games in a season since going 11-5 in 2014.
The Lions aren’t winning 10 games in 2020, either—or making the playoffs.
Fresh off a 3-12-1 mess of a 2019 season, the Lions are tied for the league’s fifth-hardest schedule this year. Beyond four games against in-division playoff teams in Minnesota and Green Bay, the Lions face three more teams that made the postseason in 2019—the Houston Texans and New Orleans Saints at home and the Tennessee Titans on the road.
The Lions may be marginally better in 2020, but they aren’t going to be especially good.”
Obviously, this type of season would be bad news for the Lions, but it’s par for the course of what many expect coming into this season on the field.
Still, not everyone sees the worst case scenario playing out. Many see more average results, and potentially even a return to the Caldwell days.
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