A one-and-done playoff exit diminishes things a lot, but overall the 2024 season will go down as a good one for the Detroit Lions, About 28 teams in the league right now would take 15 wins, a division title and everything else they accomplished and mark it as a successful season.
Of course the list of Lions players who had a high level of individual success this season is quite long...they wouldn't have gone 15-2 and earned a playoff bye otherwise. Some exceeded expectations if we really get down to it.
But, as always, there were some Lions players who didn't have a lot of success or didn't meet expectations (realistic or otherwise) this season. The reasons for a player falling short can be wide-ranging: injury, proving to be a poor scheme fit, a position change, opponents being more aware of them, etc.
One way or another, for one reason or another, these Lions players did not live up to expectations this season.
6 Lions players who didn't live up to expectations during the 2024 season
6. TE Sam LaPorta
After a rookie season where he set all kinds of franchise and league records for a tight end, LaPorta really had nowhere to go but down this year. He also battled a hamstring injury during training camp, and an ankle injury followed that early in the regular season. Later, a sprained AC joint in his left shoulder cost him a game.
Over the final six games of the regular season, clearly healthier than he'd probably been most of the season, LaPorta had 32 receptions (on 45 targets) for 341 yards and four touchdowns. Not coincidentally, that stretch accounted for a healthy portion of his season-long production (60 catches for 726 yards and seven touchdowns).
LaPorta is begrudgingly included on this list. But he definitely had a "sophomore slump" in terms of production, due to some injuries and opponents knowing how good he is.
5. CB Emmanuel Moseley
Moseley was originally signed by the Lions in 2023, coming off a torn ACL with the San Francisco 49ers during the prior campaign. After he torn his other ACL two snaps into his Lions' debut in 2023, he got a mulligan with another one-year deal last offseason.
Expectations had to be reasonable for Moseley coming off tearing an ACL in back-to-back seasons. But a base level expectation would have been for him to be mostly healthy, and early in training camp he was working in a prominent role.
But a torn pectoral in joint practice against the New York Giants, and the resulting IR stint, sidelined Moseley until Week 12. Then a hamstring injury made him a late scratch for Thanksgiving Day, and he was a healthy scratch for two games after that. He played strictly special teams again in Week 16, then he didn't play in Week 17. An illness sidelined him before Week 18, ending his season. His greatly injury-truncated Lions' tenure is surely over too.
A healthy (or healthier, not that it would've taken much to be healthier) Moseley could have been really helpful to the Lions' secondary this year. It just didn't happen.