Detroit Lions are irrelevant; Nothing good on the horizon
The Detroit Lions are already looking to next year with two weeks remaining. Should this team be blown up, or is patience the best path forward?
The Detroit Lions suffered an ugly one-point loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. While that loss now puts them at seventh in the upcoming draft (according to Tankathon.com), this season was not supposed to go this way.
With franchise quarterback Matthew Stafford in place, a new commitment to the running game, and a new head coach in Matt Patricia, this year was supposed to be the first step towards a title run. Instead, Detroit is destined to pick in the top 10 of the draft, and the franchise looks as lost as ever.
On Monday’s “The Herd with Colin Cowherd,” host Colin Cowherd talked about how the NFC North is shaping up this season (12-17-18).
The Chicago Bears have just won the division, the Minnesota Vikings are still holding the wildcard, and both the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers were eliminated from the playoffs:
"“But the lay-up line for the Packers is over. They were in a ten-year lay-up line. The Lions were a dysfunctional mess. The Bears were a dysfunctional mess. And Vikings had good ownership, but couldn’t get it right.”"
When discussing the Detroit Lions, there is nothing untrue about saying they “were a dysfunctional mess.” The only issue might be using the past tense “were” instead of the present tense “are” in that sentence. But Cowherd went on to explain what had now changed in the NFC North – and it isn’t the Lions:
"“The Vikings have a real good coach and a real good roster, and a good enough quarterback to win the division. Chicago’s got talent everywhere, and the best coach in their division. And a quarterback who’s never gonna make thirty-three million. So, the lay-up line is over.”"
Cowherd doesn’t even waste his breath on the Lions – not even enough to mention that they still live in a constant state of chaos and confusion. It’s just sort of understood to be that way. But why does this never change?
Chicago’s head coach Matt Nagy is also a rookie this year like Matt Patricia. But Nagy is the best coach in the division with all of the innovation, and Patricia is the guy trying to scratch out meaningless wins in another lost season.
Cowherd mentions Minnesota’s quarterback Kirk Cousins being capable of winning the division, but no utterance of the Detroit signal caller. Cousins’ resume reads like a younger version of Stafford – Kirk is equally known for messing up in big games, and having no playoff victories. Yet, Cousins is the one that can win the division down the road, not Stafford.
The Lions have absolutely earned this reputation of irrelevance. And it is easy to understand why Cowherd thinks Detroit is no closer to winning the division – much less the Super Bowl. But this new-look Chicago team is a much bigger problem going forward.