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The Detroit Lions are trying to build for the future, and as part of that process, there is going to be some pain in the short term as it relates to their roster.
As it stands now, the Lions might have one of the worst teams in football approaching the new season. Folks haven’t been bashful about predicting tough things for the 2021 edition of the Lions, and that has only continued as the team has pushed through free agency into the early part of the offseason.
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Recently, NFL.com contributor Dan Hanzus put together his power rankings coming out of free agency, and the Lions were occupying the last spot in the NFL at 31st. Worse yet, Hanzus doesn’t seem to think the team can do anything to pull out of this ranking given the weapons they lack.
He wrote:
“If the Lions are serious in their belief that Jared Goff can be a legitimate starter going forward, they’ll need to get him some help. Marvin Jones and Kenny Golladay both exited the picture in free agency, leaving Goff with a wide receiver room currently anchored by Breshad Perriman and Tyrell Williams. Detroit could investigate veterans still on the market — Sammy Watkins, T.Y. Hilton and Antonio Brown are among the options — but those players don’t make a ton of sense for a team that might be headed for a deep rebuild. Good luck, Jared.”
The Lions have given Goff some help in free agency, but perhaps not enough for everyone’s liking. Analysts currently think they rate the worst of any NFL team, and are primed for a miserable season as a result of that.
Power rankings can always change after the draft, but the Lions have a lot of ground to gain if they wish to change that narrative in the coming months.
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With news of the Lions letting Kenny Golladay walk to free agency as well as trading quarterback Matthew Stafford, some folks are beginning to feel as if the team is downright punting on future seasons in order to set up a potential tank.
In fact, one analyst went so far as to make a very bold proclamation about the Lions. As Kevin Patra said on Twitter, he believes the team should be considered frontrunners for the first overall pick of the 2022 NFL Draft.
If this is the case, it should be music to ears of fans in Detroit. The Lions have a lot of needs, and have plenty of picks coming down the pipe after a mega-deal with the Los Angeles Rams. Detroit could be set up to own the next few drafts, and if they had the top pick in 2022, it could only work to accelerate the rebuild in a major way. It will be fascinating to see if the Lions are worse than the likes of the New York Jets, Houston Texans, and Jacksonville Jaguars.
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Lions Called ‘Lock’ for Miserable 2021 Season
Despite the fact that the team has not even kicked off free agency or done the draft, takes are sprouting up as it relates to how the team will look on the field. Fox Sports analyst Colin Cowherd thinks that the team is going to be miserable again even in spite of the changes they have made.
Once again, Cowherd is projecting the Lions will have a terrible season and stay in last place once 2021 ends. He rolled this projection out and didn’t offer much of a defense, other than he’d be likely to say the Lions are the Lions.
It’s easy to predict the Lions will be bad, so not a surprise to see Cowherd writing the team off, however it is fair to see where he is coming from. The team is theoretically in a rebuild and finding momentum could be tough to do. Obviously, it isn’t going out on a limb to say the other teams predicted to finish last could be thought of as bad as well, so this isn’t exactly the boldest take.
Nevertheless, before the offseason is completed and the schedule is known, Cowherd is already writing the Lions off completely. As this commentary shows, he’s far from the only one that doesn’t believe in the Lions in 2021.
Right now, many see Detroit as the worst team in the entire NFL.
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