The Detroit Lions have clear expectations for defensive tackle Brodric Martin heading into the upcoming 2025 NFL season.
In 2024, injuries slowed the progress of a developmental player who was expected to build upon his rookie campaign. After suffering a knee injury in the preseason finale, Martin was sidelined until late-November.
Upon returning, Martin appeared in just two games and played only 28 defensive snaps. In his two NFL seasons, the Western Kentucky product has played in five games and totaled four tackles.
Heading into his third season, general manager Brad Holmes expects the 25-year-old to be more consistent.
“Look, he’s got to be consistent,” Holmes said. “Obviously, you guys all know I was very clear and transparent that he was more in the developmental project bucket when we took him. But, now it’s time for him not to just — because he brought flashes in the preseason. When he came from his injury, he brought flashes, but, you know, he had some low points as well.
“So, we need to see more of the consistency of the flashes, and he just needs to be a consistent player,” Holmes explained further. “And he knows that. We’ve had transparent conversations, and so he knows that he needs to be a consistent player. He’s got all the ability, he’s got all the physical tools to be a consistent player.”
Alim McNeill will not be available for Detroit to start the 2025 season, as he works his way back from a torn ACL suffered in December.
In free agency, the team added Roy Lopez and could add more defensive tackles in the NFL draft.
Derrick Harmon and Kenneth Grant have recently been mocked to the Lions in many of the latest projections.
For Martin, taking strides forward will be paramount for a defensive line in need of depth and productivity on a team playing a first-place schedule.
This article was produced by the staff at Detroit Lions On SI. For more, visit si.com/nfl/lions
Detroit Lions defensive tackle Brodric Martin reacts after knocking down a pass during the first half of an NFL preseason football game against the New York Giants, Friday, Aug. 11, 2023, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
The Detroit Lions have retained more of their defensive line depth.
Pat O’Connor, whom the team added during the summer prior to last season, has re-signed with the team ahead of the 2025 season. O’Connor was a big part of the team’s interior defensive line rotation last season, as injuries necessitated him having an increased role.
O’Connor did not make the team initially out of training camp, but remained with the team on the practice squad. By midseason, he was on the active roster and contributing on the defensive line.
The Eastern Michigan product was originally drafted by the Lions in the seventh round of the 2017 NFL Draft. However, he did not make the team, and eventually landed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
O’Connor played his way into a role with Tampa Bay, spending six seasons with the team including the 2020 campaign in which the team won the Super Bowl.
In his career, O’Connor has appeared in 80 games. He played in 12 games last year for Detroit, totaling 18 combined tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack. The Eastern Michigan product had 10 pressures and a 55.3 pass-rush grade per Pro Football Focus.
Unfortunately, O’Connor’s season came to an end after he suffered a calf injury in the regular season finale, and he was deemed inactive for the team’s playoff loss to the Washington Commanders.
The Lions also re-signed Levi Onwuzurike last week as part of the initial wave of free agency. A 2021 second-round pick, Onwuzurike returns to Detroit on a one-year, $5.5 million contract.
This article was produced by the staff at Detroit Lions On SI. For more, visit si.com/nfl/lions
Detroit Lions defensive end Pat O’Connor (95) is introduced before the start an NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers in Detroit, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (CARLOS OSORIO — AP Photo)
The Detroit native and Philadelphia Eagles legend announced his retirement Tuesday. Graham, who attended Crockett High School and played four seasons at Michigan from 2006-09, helped the Eagles win Super Bowl LII and Super Bowl LIX.
Graham turns 37 next month.
“I gave everything I had — everything I had in this,” Graham said in a news conference. “I don’t have no regrets. That’s one thing I tell them young boys: I don’t have no regrets. First, I just wanted to say, 15 years ago I walked into this city as a young man with dreams, big dreams, a little bit of nervousness and a whole lot of fire in my heart. I had no idea back then what this journey would bring. … Today, as I sit here, I just want to thank God because I know He was the main reason. … I am overwhelmed with gratitude.”
Graham was selected with the 13th overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft. He struggled to find his footing early and battled an injury in 2011 before he established himself in Year 3. Graham recorded 487 total tackles (126 for loss), 76½ sacks and 22 forced turnovers in his career.
While at Michigan, Graham tallied 29.5 sacks. He also led the Big Ten in tackles for loss in 2008 (20) and 2009 (26).
Brandon Graham holds up two Lombardi Trophies during a news conference announcing his retirement, Tuesday, March 18, 2025, at the Philadelphia Eagles’ NFL football training facility in Philadelphia. (MATT ROURKE — AP Photo)
The Detroit Lions took the first major step in renewing the chase for a Super Bowl trophy this weekend. The team evaluated the latest crop of draft-eligible college talent at the annual NFL Combine.
Players ran through drills and testing to measure their size, speed and strength, while football executives and media alike tried to get a sense of the NFL hopefuls’ character.
Those examining the players included journalist Justin Rogers, founder of the independent publication the Detroit Football Network, which is dedicated solely to covering the Lions. From the combine site in Indianapolis, Rogers says this is the chance for the Lions to decide who could fill the holes in an already solid Detroit roster.
Listen: Lions prowl for new college talent at NFL Combine
The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Justin Rogers, Detroit Football Network: They do have several areas of need, both short and long term. I think probably the most pressing is the defensive line. That really pertains to both the edge rushing position opposite Aiden Hutchinson and the defensive tackle position.
When you look at this draft, the Lions are selecting very late in the first round, 28th overall. That creates a ton of variables in terms of what the teams select ahead of you. And your ability to trade up and trade down is a little bit more fluid and easier, as we saw last year with them trading up for Terrion Arnold.
If I was to speculate at this very early stage before free agency takes place and they modify their roster through that means, I think there’s a real high likelihood they do address the defensive line. But the beauty of selecting so late is having that flexibility to go any number of directions. They really can choose the best player available regardless of position, because of the depth of their overall roster.
Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: There were so many injuries with the defense in particular last year. Do the Lions need just to add depth to that part of the roster, or do they really need to find some kind of a true star difference-maker?
JR: I think you always are looking for stars. But it’s so much easier said than done. There’s a level of projection within that.
The easier thing to do is add depth with high-quality players that have the potential to develop into starters. You’re not likely to have the guaranteed odds of finding a star-caliber player with the 28th pick.
And you look at the injury situation from last season, in many ways it was completely an anomaly. You don’t have that many injuries typically. You certainly don’t have that many injuries on one side of the ball. I don’t think you want to overreact to that, because that is not a situation that is likely to replicate.
You always want depth in a NFL roster. And I think that’s one of the really great characteristics of their current General Manager Brad Holmes. He understands that and seems to constantly be thinking about being prepared for that. It’s why they were able to sustain their play at such a high level last year. Obviously it didn’t end the way people wanted with the playoff loss. But the team won 15 games despite all those injuries. I think that’s a remarkable feat that’s lost because of the way that their season finished.
QK: You talk about overreacting. There were many people, many experts, saying the Lions had a good shot at a Super Bowl last year. And then they had the horrid loss in the first round of the playoffs. You’ve talked to so many players and people in the front office. Do you think that playoff loss will that change anything in their approach to how they build a roster through the draft or elsewhere?
JR: No, I don’t. I think they look at the way they’ve built thus far. Since the current front office has been in place, this team has gone from 3 wins to 9 wins to 11 wins to 15 wins. They have built in a very successful manner.
It is, I think, sustainable, because a lot of their talent is young. They’re doing a really nice job of locking them up to long-term contracts and keeping that foundation in place.
That playoff loss, it was terrible, it was unexpected, it was disappointing. But if you take the longer view you see finally all those injuries caught up to them. They were missing Aiden Hutchinson, arguably the Defensive Player of the Year, had he stayed healthy. They were missing a starting defensive tackle and a starting cornerback. They lost another starting cornerback in the first couple minutes of that playoff game. They were missing a starting linebacker. I mean, they were just missing starters all over the place. And for as much as they were able to kind of keep it together with duct tape and rubber cement through the course of the year, it did catch up to them.
So now they’re going to come back in 2025 and presumably have most, if not all, of those pieces back healthy. And you just expect it to not fall apart like it did last year. There’s always going to be injuries in football. It’s a violent game, it’s just a natural part of it. But to have them to that degree, it’s unlikely to happen again. So you take what you have, add some pieces to it and try to build continually, as you have through the last four years.
QK: Both Detroit’s offensive and defensive coordinators left for head coaching jobs. Losing even one of those people that run one side or the other of the ball could be a bit rough for a lot of teams. Now, you have two new coordinators coming in. Do you see the team adopting a different kind of scheme or looking for a different kind of player in the draft than the Lions have taken recently?
JR: That’s a really good question. A really big point about this is that Head Coach Dan Campbell, as he was replacing those two coordinators, was maintaining a level of continuity.
On the defensive side, they promoted Kelvin Sheppard. He’s been here for the duration of this regime the past four years. He was specifically groomed to be this replacement for the last two seasons. So I don’t expect a whole lot of change schematically there. Everybody sees things just a touch different, so there will be some minor tweaks. But in terms of the grand scheme of things, I think it’ll be very similar.
Offensively they did the same thing. They did bring in an outsider in John Morton. But he’s an outsider that had been with Detroit before. He was here in 2022 and that was a really important year, because that was Ben Johnson’s first year as offensive coordinator, when he was implementing and installing and building-out his offensive scheme. John Morton was kind of a background figure then as a senior offensive assistant. But the word is he had a really, really big role in shaping and implementing things, working directly with quarterback Jared Goff. They brought him back to kind of maintain the continuity of the thing. You look at their offense, the pieces that they have, it would be really, really difficult to screw it up. It just would.
And the beauty of it is, they’re not selecting in the top 10, as many people have gotten used to them doing over the years because they’ve been so bad. You don’t need to have that great player staring you in the face at the very top of the draft. You have the ability to sit there and wait. Your first pick is number 28, you are picking kind of in the heart of the middle of the draft, where these so-called experts believe the depth of the draft is. I think there’s a really nice potential for them to get two, possibly three players that can contribute in spots where they could really use some help as soon as next year.
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The offseason is underway, and teams like the Detroit Lions are looking for every possible way to improve their team ahead of the 2025 season.
One potential way to do so is through the trade market. While the Lions will not be forced to make deals given the state of their roster, the depth they possess could be appealing to teams across the league.
As a result, general manager Brad Holmes could receive an intriguing offer for a player lower on Detroit’s loaded depth chart.
Here are five players the Lions could potentially garner interest for in draft day trades.
QB Hendon Hooker
Hooker’s name has garnered plenty of attention throughout the early parts of the offseason. He had excellent production in college, and was viewed as a potential first-round pick before suffering a torn ACL in his senior season.
In two seasons with the Lions, he has been exposed to some game action albeit in blowouts. With his potential, and the fact that Jared Goff is about to begin a four-year contract extension, he could be enticing to another team.
The New York Jets, which are coached by former Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, recently announced their intentions to part ways with veteran passer Aaron Rodgers. Hooker could be enticing to a team like that, as he could get an opportunity to show off his skills with two years left on a rookie deal.
Ultimately, Hooker’s unproven nature could lead to a team taking a chance on him. If not, the Lions will surely be content keeping him as a quality backup to Goff.
DE Josh Paschal
Paschal is an interesting case, as he has been productive in some areas throughout the first three years of his career. Entering the final year of his rookie deal, the decision on whether or not to extend him is somewhat puzzling.
The Kentucky product has been solid as a run-stopper when available, but hasn’t produced at a high level as a pass-rusher. If a team is searching for a run-stuffing defensive end, though, he would be a fit.
If the Lions are uncertain as to whether they want to extend him and another franchise makes a quality offer, it may be hard for the team to turn it down. The defensive end position is one of the most valuable in football, and Paschal could fit a team’s needs elsewhere if said team is unable to upgrade in free agency.
LB Malcolm Rodriguez
Rodriguez, like Paschal, is entering the final year of his rookie deal. The situation is somewhat different, however, as the Lions have several options at linebacker that could make the path to significant playing time difficult for the Oklahoma State product.
In this situation, Rodriguez would become expendable if the team elects to re-sign Derrick Barnes. Rodriguez is highly thought of by new defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard and would still get opportunities, but elsewhere could provide a better path to a starting-caliber role.
Rodriguez will be able to compete for playing time regardless of whether Barnes returns, but a different organization could see enough value in him to make a deal for him in the final year of his rookie contract.
DE Za’Darius Smith
Smith was acquired by the Lions at the trade deadline last year and still has one year remaining on his deal. Given the different salary cap benefits the team could stand to gain by parting ways with him, it’s up in the air whether or not he will don the Lions’ uniform in 2025.
While releasing him is one path, the Lions could also shop him with the hopes of gaining draft capital. According to OverTheCap, the Lions would not incur any dead money in a pre-June 1 trade while saving $5,727,500 against the cap.
Smith has voiced his desire to remain with the organization for the 2025 season and wants to win a Super Bowl. However, if a team comes to Holmes with a good offer, it could be tough to turn down.
OL Colby Sorsdal
After appearing in 16 games as a rookie and making three starts, Sorsdal took a step back in 2024. He was active for just one game, as he was beaten out by the likes of Michael Niese and Christian Mahogany for backup spots on the game day active roster.
In training camp, Sorsdal was being trained to be a utility lineman, with the ability to step in at either guard or tackle. However, that didn’t pan out as his overall role was limited. This has the makings of a big third year that could define his future.
With Mahogany set to return and Gio Manu expected to take a jump in his second season, Sorsdal could be one of the odd men out. He may not have much value, but a team looking to add young offensive line depth could take a chance on the William & Mary product.
This article was produced by the staff at Detroit Lions On SI. For more, visit si.com/nfl/lions
The offseason of change continues for the Detroit Lions, as another new face is being added to the coaching staff.
According to reports Thursday, the Lions are set to hire Tashard Choice as their running backs coach.
Scottie Montgomery, who formerly coached the running backs coach and doubles as assistant head coach, will be coaching the wide receivers in 2025.
Detroit had a vacancy on their staff for a wide receivers coach, as Antwaan Randle El departed to join former Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson on the Chicago Bears’ coaching staff.
Choice has spent the last three seasons as the running backs coach at the University of Texas, and held the same position at Georgia Tech prior to that.
The hire allows Lions’ running back Jahmyr Gibbs to reunite with his former position coach at Georgia Tech, as Choice presided over the Yellow Jackets’ running back room in Gibbs’ first two seasons. Choice was at Georgia Tech from 2019-21, with Gibbs playing for the team in 2020 and 2021.
Choice had a six-year NFL career as a player after playing collegiately at Georgia Tech. He played for four NFL teams, including Dallas, Washington, Buffalo and Indianapolis. His most productive season was his rookie year, as he totaled 92 carries for 472 yards and two touchdowns.
In his career, Choice totaled 1,579 yards and 10 touchdowns on 372 carries. He began his coaching career as an intern for the Cowboys, before returning to the college ranks as a graduate assistant for North Texas in 2017.
Choice was promoted to running backs coach the following year, then departed to take the job at his alma mater beginning in 2019.
Roehl’s role
Earlier in the week, reports indicated that the Lions were hiring former Iowa State running backs coach Tyler Roehl as an offensive assistant. According to Detroit Football Network, Roehl will be the team’s tight ends coach.
Roehl replaces Steve Heiden, who helmed the tight end room for two seasons before leaving to join former Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn as the New York Jets’ offensive line coach.
This article was produced by the staff at Detroit Lions On SI. For more, visit si.com/nfl/lions
Indianapolis Colts running back Tashard Choice (43) watches the action from the bench during the first half of an AFC divisional NFL playoff football game against the New England Patriots in Foxborough, Mass., Saturday, Jan. 11, 2014. (STEPHAN SAVOIA — AP Photo, file)
For much of its 2023 and 2024 seasons, the National Football League welcomed the economic and cultural benefits of the “Taylor Swift effect.”
The league reveled in a surge in sponsorship, ratings and female viewership because the once-in-a-generation female celebrity was dating a star NFL player and showing her love of attending football games.
Ahead of Super Bowl LVIII in 2024, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell even proclaimed that Swift’s high-profile embrace of football, vis-a-vis her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, was “great for us.”
But at Sunday’s Super Bowl LIX, with Goodell sitting at the 50-yard line with President Donald Trump, one of the most admired and successful women in the world was aggressively booed by thousands at the New Orleans Superdome. Soon after the boos, Trump, the game’s guest of honor, went on social media to bash Swift, as he tends to do with other famous people who oppose him politically or who challenge to his cultural authority. On Truth Social, he falsely said Swift had been booed “out of the stadium” — she in fact stayed to watch the game — and declared: “MAGA is very unforgiving.”
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – FEBRUARY 09: Commissioner of the NFL Roger Goodell (L) meets with U.S. President Donald Trump before Super Bowl LIX between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles at Caesars Superdome on February 09, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
For one female writer attending Sunday’s game, the effect of the boos and Trump’s subsequent Truth Social posts raised “significant” questions about whether the NFL was reverting to its old “toxic” ways.
Stephanie McNeal, writing for Glamour, said there have been several times that she has “felt chilled by the rapid increase in misogyny seeping in our culture” since Trump was elected president for a second term. “But watching Taylor Swift at Super Bowl LIX booed by a crowd of thousands on Sunday night was a new low,” McNeal wrote.
Some people have suggested that Swift was merely heckled by some rowdy Philadelphia Eagles fans as her face appeared on the Jumbotron. The Eagles fans were understandably pumped about watching their team defeat her boyfriend’s Chiefs 40-22. But what happened to Swift was something else, said McNeal.
“An almost instant — and distinctly male — dissent erupted from around me,” she said she witnessed. “As soon Swift appeared on screen, the crowd seemed to delight in jeering and heckling her, and the mood shift was palpable.”
McNeal said the moment might have “felt less visceral” if not for the fact that the crowd exploded into cheers less than an hour earlier, when Trump appeared on the same Jumbotron, standing in salute as Jon Batiste sang the national anthem. While social media showed that some boos were directed at Trump, overall, “the roar and approval” for him “was deafening,” McNeal wrote.
Conservative pundit Megyn Kelly, who also was at the Super Bowl, sitting between Trump and Swift’s luxury boxes, confirmed the different reactions to Swift and Trump on her blog. She declared, “It was just so obvious the crowd loved Trump.” She also repeated Trump’s Truth Social post that, other than the Kansas City Chiefs, Swift was “the biggest loser of the night.”
To McNeal, the different reactions in this NFL arena “felt like a message.” It is that the Super Bowl, one of the biggest cultural events in the country, “has been reclaimed by Trump and the type of toxic masculinity he appears to be the beacon of,” she said.
If that’s the case with the Super Bowl, it marks a stunning turnaround from 2024’s game, when sports, entertainment and news outlets couldn’t get enough of celebrating Swift at the game, pumping out photos of her cheering on the Chiefs as they defeated the San Francisco 49ers, or of her embracing and kissing Kelce on the field as he and his team received their second-straight Vincent Lombardi Trophy.
US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift (C) and Ashley Avignone (R) attend Super Bowl LVIII between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, February 11, 2024. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
Before and after the 2024 Super Bowl, much was written about the “Taylor Swift effect” and the mega-star’s ability to attract female viewers to NFL games across different age demographics. One study showed that Swift’s game-day appearances, including at the 2024 Super Bowl, boosted NFL viewership in the ages 12-17 demographic by 8%, while a league spokesperson told McNeal that its following among women jumped 21% from 2023 to 2024. Ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl, Marketwatch reported that the NFL should consider making Swift “an unofficial MVP” by reporting that she has helped the NFL earn nearly $1 billion in brand value since she began dating Kelce in the summer of 2023.
This news organization also detailed how Swift helped boost the personal and professional profiles of other wives and girlfriends of NFL players — the so-called WAGs. The 14-time Grammy award winner notably created a viral moment for Kristin Juszczyk, the fashion designer wife of 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk. Swift wore a red, custom-designed Kristin Juszczyk puffer jacket to the Jan. 13, 2024 game, and the 49ers spouse soon landed an NFL licensing deal to produce stylish, sports-themed fashions.
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) kisses Taylor Swift after the NFL Super Bowl 58 football game against the San Francisco 49ers, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. The Chiefs won 25-22. (AP Photo/John Locher)
The NFL enjoyed other benefits of the “Taylor Swift effect,” building on stories about her interest in professional football to show that the game has made strides in its effort to shed its reputation as a boys-only club, plagued by a succession of sexual assaults, sexual harassment and domestic violence scandals.
Teams like the 49ers have been very public about their initiatives to mirror social attitudes about diversity and equality by working to attract Swift’s demographic of fans — girls and young women and members of the LGBTQ community — and to hire increasing numbers of women, especially in leadership positions. But now the NFL may face questions about how seriously it wants to expand its appeal when the crowd at its annual championship game loudly cheered a man who has been accused by multiple women of sexual harassment and assault, while loudly booing a talented, accomplished and highly influential woman who had become one of the sport’s most enthusiastic boosters.
Certainly, there was a bit less excitement this year about Swift attending the Super Bowl. The novelty of her dating Kelce has worn off. The pop mega-star also isn’t expected to be as visible as she has been the past two years, as she ended her blockbuster Eras Tour in December. Moreover, she wasn’t coming off the buzz of just being named Time’s Person of the Year, as was the case in early 2024.
Indeed Donald Trump succeeded Swift as Time’s Person of the Year in 2024 and, critics say, has been using his presidency to dismantle decades of government efforts to improve social and economic opportunities for women, people of color and queer people. He and Swift represent “two factions of American culture currently struggling for dominance,” McNeal said.
When it comes to the NFL, the reality is that Swift was never universally embraced by football fans, McNeal acknowledged. A large and vocal contingent of mostly male fans complained about her presence at games being a “distraction.” Kelly also tried to justify Swift being booed by blaming her, saying she’s let herself be “overexposed” to the point that the public has become sick of her. Kelly also said that Swift alienated half the country by getting political and by endorsing Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris.
Whether Kelly is right, some of Swift’s fans argued on X that Trump and his supporters didn’t exactly distinguish themselves, or boost the public image of the NFL, with their conduct at the Super Bowl Sunday. They said that Trump showed his “narcissism” by sharing side-by-side images of himself being cheered while Swift was booed.
“A grown man, nearly an octogenarian, seeking validation like a 10-year-old on the playground. Pathetic. But true to form,” one person said, while another said that Trump is “a bully who obviously needs to tear down others because his fragile ego can’t take it.” One woman furthermore suggested that Swift haters at the Super Bowl revealed that NFL fandom might be filled with “sad, grown-ass men” who “are threatened by (Swift’s) presence.”
To McNeal, Trump and his booing supporters seemed to announce that the NFL’s “era of inclusivity” is over. She wrote: “Not only does it feel like Trump and his ilk want Swift out of football, it’s like they want to return our entire country to a time when they were in control, had all the power, and could say whatever they wanted without repercussions.”
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – FEBRUARY 09: (L-R) Ashley Avignone, Taylor Swift, Alana Haim and Este Haim attend Super Bowl LIX at Caesars Superdome on February 09, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
It was supposed to be the Detroit Lions appearing in Super Bowl 59.
What the heck happened to the dream season that should have seen Dan Campbell’s squad appear in front of a worldwide audience?
Going all the way back to rookie minicamp and OTAs, it truly appeared that general manager Brad Holmes carefully constructed a roster that could win plenty of games in the regular season and make a deep playoff push.
But, as the injuries piled up and warts started to appear, there were several reasons why the Lions are sitting at home on Super Bowl Sunday instead of competing for a Lombardi Trophy.
Here are my thoughts on why the Lions are not playing in Super Bowl 59:
Not bold enough at the NFL trade deadline
It’s true. The injuries along the defense were piling up. What made it challenging for the front office to take a big swing at the deadline was the team was still competing and winning games.
Without Aidan Hutchinson, the team rallied and was able to rattle off wins, despite losing a Defensive Player of the Year candidate.
At the deadline, it was clear the team needed to add a pass-rusher. While Za’Darius Smith provided a spark, it was simply not enough to add an aging veteran and several players from other teams’ practice squads.
Against the Commanders, rookie Jayden Daniels was able to neutralize Detroit’s pass-rush efforts by getting rid of the football quickly and using his feet to move the pocket.
Detroit may have benefitted from additional depth in the secondary or even on offense.
Holmes and the front office will regret not being bolder at the deadline.
Injuries
Never in the history of the Lions have so many players been placed on the injured reserve list.
The defensive side of the football was ravaged by injuries, including serious ailments to Hutchinson, Alex Anzalone, Derrick Barnes, Malcolm Rodriguez, Carlton Davis and Amik Robertson.
A couple of the injuries were friendly-fire from the team itself. Jack Campbell was flying around the field and taking out his own guys, too. Anzalone and Robertson, in fact, suffered broken bones due to Campbell’s aggressiveness.
While the team chalked up the injuries to “bad luck” when questioned, there must be more of an effort to ensure the team is utilizing all the best information to prevent injuries as much as possible.
Detroit also suffered its fair share of MCL injuries this season.
Heading into 2025, revamping the medical training staff and conducting a thorough evaluation of each and every injury will ensure the “luck” factor swings in the Lions’ direction in 2025.
Jared Goff came up short when the lights were the brightest
Detroit’s franchise quarterback came up short in the biggest game of the season. Even though his offensive line deserves its fair share of blame, pressure from the Commanders’ defense is no excuse for the numerous turnovers and interceptions from the veteran signal-caller.
Lions OnSI asked Dan Campbell what it would take for Goff to take the next step to become a Super Bowl winner.
“It’s the same step for every one of us. Same step for me as a coach, for the coordinators, for him as a quarterback, for (Amon-Ra) St. Brown as a receiver, for Alex Anzalone as a linebacker, just do your job. One more game here, and then we’ll worry about the next game,” said Campbell. “That’s it. You just keep playing at a high level, get us in the right play, and understand that it’s not all about you. We don’t live and die by one player, one coach, no nothing. We work as a team, as a unit, and trust the guy next to you.”
Unfortunately, the player holding the football every play on offense did not play at a high level.
Turnovers dried up
Detroit’s defense unfortunately did not do enough to secure extra possessions against a hungry Commanders squad that played with nothing to lose.
Losing the turnover battle, five to zero, in the playoffs sent Detroit home far too soon, especially after a 15-2 regular season.
“We hit a drought. We hit a drought again, and even particularly in this game, we knew we were going to need some takeaways and we just couldn’t get them,” said Campbell. “I thought we may get one on the long one to (Commanders WR Dyami) Brown, Kerby (Joseph) was coming over the top and I thought we were about to get that one, and then it comes away and he gets an explosive catch out of it.
“We just – we couldn’t, man, we punched at some balls, we couldn’t get them out, the interceptions, really, other than that one I just talked about,” Campbell explained further. “We could never apply enough pressure to force him to get rid of the ball in a situation that was going to benefit us.”
Noise
Fans understandably do not want to really blame Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson for the Lions losing.
However, ask yourself this simple question: Was that really the absolute best gameplan offensively and defensively put together by the Lions?
Nobody is going to question the effort level by both coordinators, but their pursuit of other opportunities was noise a team seeking its first-ever Super Bowl did not need at all.
The Lions are not a team that has a legacy of appearing in and winning Super Bowls.
In order for them to get over the hump, each and every member of the organization must put aside their own personal desires for the greater good of the team.
It is my belief that the distractions — the noise surrounding the Lions’ coordinators — combined with the Commanders’ staff handling the noise better contributed to the upset at Ford Field.
This article was produced by the staff at Detroit Lions On SI. For more, visit si.com/nfl/lions
Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell on the sideline with a Microsoft Surface against the Washington Commanders during an NFL football divisional playoff game, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025, in Detroit. (RICK OSENTOSKI — AP Photo)
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