In Week 13, the Lions pulled off an upset.
Detroit QB Jared Goff found WR Amon-Ra St. Brown in the end zone as time expired to give the Lions their first win of the season. The Vikings should be disappointed that they lost to an inferior opponent.
But soon enough, Detroit will no longer be looking for its first victory in Week 13. The Lions are built for the long term, and the Vikings should be worried.
Detroit traded QB Matthew Stafford in exchange for QB Jared Goff, two first-round picks and a third-round pick. The Lions are going to be bad for at least another year, so Detroit should reap the benefits of good draft capital there, too.
Goff is signed through 2024, but the Lions can get out of his contract in 2023 and only incur a dead money hit of $10 million, while saving more than $20.6 million on the cap that year, per Over The Cap. If the Lions find a quarterback through the draft before then, they could be primed for contention by dumping Goff’s contract.
There is more to football than drafting quarterbacks and tanking for a few seasons, though. Detroit has to make sure the locker room is in better shape than it was in the past. That’s where Lions coach Dan Campbell comes in.
Campbell already seems like an improvement over Matt Patricia, at least. The Lions coach has garnered headlines for talk of biting kneecaps and showed emotion after his team’s loss to Minnesota in Week 5.
In Week 15, the Lions won again — this time against the Cardinals — notching their record to 2-11-1. Campbell was ecstatic in the locker room after the game.
The Lions celebrated after their most recent win, which they should. It’s been a long year. If Detroit keeps trending this way, the Lions will continue to celebrate victories. And the rest of the NFC North will stop laughing. That could come sooner than you think.
