The Detroit Lions most surprising player is also their best

The Detroit Lions’ boast a surprising player who is among the NFL’s best

The Detroit Lions are sitting at 3-4 and still have an opportunity to make a run at the playoffs. A big win over the Minnesota Vikings would go a long way towards helping them reach that goal.

So far the 2020 season has been much like most other years for the Detroit Lions; the performance of many players has been disappointing and the team has been inconsistent to average at best. Some might just go straight to labeling them the ‘same old Lions’.

For general manager Bob Quinn and head coach Matt Patricia, this is an important season. They have been charged with having the Lions in the playoff race and participating in ‘meaningful games in December’.

In a year where the playoff field has already been expanded by one extra team in both conferences and may even be expanded further due to the interruption of scheduled games because of COVID-19, the Lions have the chance to be both underwhelming and still in the playoff race deep into the regular season.

I suppose that could be considered everything this franchise could ever want since doing what is necessary to become a legitimate championship contender hasn’t been on the agenda for the last 60 plus years or ownership simply hasn’t been capable of doing so despite their best efforts.

Most fans I know would say it’s the agenda, but regardless of whether the Detroit Lions have floundered so bad because of ineptitude or pure laziness due to how well the city supports this team, the 2020 model has the same appearance of all those woebegone teams that came before them.

The difference is that the playoffs are being watered down so much that even the Lions being the Lions still has them in a position to make good on ownership’s mandate to play ‘meaningful games in December’. They may not win those games and gain a playoff berth, but they have every opportunity to at least play one or two meaningful games after Thanksgiving.