The period between the end of minicamp and the onset of training camp is often the season of lists in the NFL. One such list, Pro Football Focus and its top 50 players in the league right now, struck my Lions eyes with a shot of reality.
There isn’t a single Detroit Lion on the list.
It’s not a surprise, not after the team dealt away Matthew Stafford and saw Marvin Jones and Kenny Golladay leave in free agency. None of them made the list either, and that’s part of the larger point. There just isn’t top-end talent in Detroit, either now or in the last handful of seasons.
The best players on the current roster are, in some semblance of order, center Frank Ragnow, left tackle Taylor Decker, punter Jack Fox, defensive lineman Trey Flowers, tight end T.J. Hockenson and linebacker Jamie Collins. They’re all darn good players but only Ragnow challenges for the best at his position.
As talented as Stafford was, he was never in that top echelon. Nor was Golladay, or Glover Quin or Darius Slay or Matt Prater. Again, all are very talented, high-end players at their positions. But they weren’t premium, perennial All-Pros. The last Lions who truly belonged in those conversations are Ndamukong Suh and Calvin Johnson.
Suh left after the 2014 season and Johnson followed a year later. Try as they might, the Lions regimes have never been able to find the transcendent All-Pros. It’s reflected in lists like this that don’t feature any Detroit players and there isn’t really anyone considered an obvious snub.
That’s the challenge for new Lions GM Brad Holmes. He can’t just find a bunch of good players in the draft and free agency. Holmes must find a dominant star. Maybe Penei Sewell can be that at right tackle. Maybe Hockenson’s growth curve hits that peak. Maybe Jeff Okudah shakes off an injury-plagued rookie year and lives up to being the No. 3 overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft.
All those could happen. Maybe. But right now the Lions don’t deserve any players on any top-50 overall player lists. Some fans won’t want to hear it, but there is a talent ceiling on this particular team and it’s not a high one either. Until there is some deserving Detroit representation on lists like this, it’s going to be tough for the Lions to leap up into being postseason winners.
