The Detroit Lions have added talent through free agency and the draft, but are they still pretenders or have they become contenders?
Last weekend during the 2018 NFL Draft, the Detroit Lions added a handful of pieces to help improve the team and lead them towards contention.
In the aftermath, fans have had varying opinions on how general manager Bob Quinn and head coach Matt Patricia have been putting this team together through the draft and free agency.
The term ‘fan’ is short for fanatic. If you look around the professional and collegiate sports scene, it’s easy to see where the word came from. Those fans also tend to fall into two categories. One is that they love their team, but have unfortunately given up hope after a long absence of success. Then there are the fans that can only see the good, even when their team is on course for a lousy season.
Both views tend to be too far to the extreme and finding the ability to see a team for what they are can be difficult for some because love is blind.
Meanwhile, in the eyes of Quinn, these Lions have underachieved for the past two seasons at 9-7. With that being said, are these revamped Lions now ready to be legitimate contenders?
That is the key question.
I suppose the best way to answer that is like this; have the Lions really only been a ground game away from contending or do they need to be able to play solid defense as well to be a challenge for a title?
For some people, this is like the chicken or the egg conundrum.
Both a balanced offense that can score and a defense that can keep their opponents from scoring are considered traditionally good ways to have a chance at making a run for a title. When combined, they make a team that is very difficult to reckon with.
Something, I dare say, that all Lions fans would love to see from their team.
Yet, over the course of NFL history, the highest scoring offenses have rarely taken home the title, while many stingy defenses have made title contenders.