The 2025 NFL season for the Detroit Lions will be coming to a close on Sunday afternoon with a Week 18 tilt against the rival Chicago Bears, who are headed to the NFL postseason, at Soldier Field.
The Lions will have to play the Bears knowing that, regardless of the game’s final outcome, Chicago will experience playoff football while their reign at the top of the NFC North Division came to a close.
Even more painful is the fact that the Bears are now led by former Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, while his replacement in Detroit, John Morton, had his play calling duties stripped by head coach Dan Campbell in Week 10.
When it comes to what Campbell feels was the biggest reason for the letdown for the Lions in 2025, he spoke plainly.
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Dan Campbell Reveals What He Thinks The Biggest Weakness For the Detroit Lions In 2025 Was
According to Campbell, Detroit’s ground game is one of the biggest areas of need as they close out the season against the Bears and begin preparations for next season.
“It’s everything,” Campbell said about Detroit’s ground attack.
Campbell continued by hinting at changes coming to the organization after he’s had time to sit down and truly ponder what else went wrong in 2025.
“There’s a lot of things that go into it,” he continued. “And do I have a couple of ideas? Maybe right now, but I need some time here. I need time to really sit down and think about all this. But what we do know is one way or another probably change is inevitable. Now, it may not be much, but there will be something that’ll change.”
Morton, who will be with the club for at least one more game, also recently said that the ground attack has been an emphasis since the beginning.
“It’s always been a big emphasis every single week, the run game and trying to get it going,” Morton said. “And sometimes you get behind the 8-ball and you’ve got to throw it and sometimes you don’t get the right looks and sometimes we just ain’t executing.”
“We all have our hand in all of this, so it’s just a little bit of everything.”
The Lions, who had one of the best rushing attacks in 2024, saw it fall to one of the worst-ranked in the NFL this season.
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Dan Campbell Also Pointed To Detroit’s Offensive Line As A Key Concern
With multiple injuries to so many key players, Detroit’s offensive line was severely depleted for much of the season. They also weren’t helped by the retirement of four-time Pro Bowler Frank Ragnow.
According to Campbell, the offensive line is one of the areas of the team that he plans to “polish up”.
“I’d probably start with the O-line,” Campbell said. “Just want to see—and just a tick more, just a little bit better. See if we can polish some things up, work together, work our combinations just a little bit.”
With only one game left to go, Detroit’s offensive line, which is ranked 20th overall in run block win rate and 31st in pass block win rate, has allowed a total of 36 sacks in 16 games.
Dan Campbell Reveals Biggest Reason Behind the Lions’ Disappointing 2025 Season