Analyst Predicts Average Finish For Lions During 2020 Season

The Detroit Lions have seen some miserable projections about how they will finish the 2020 NFL season, but it’s possible none has been as optimistic as a recent prediction.

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.

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.

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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.

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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. Lions fans will have to hope that’s the case.

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