General manager Brad Holmes will fight the narrative every chance he gets, and he always will. But the rest of the world (including head coach Dan Campbell and defensive end Aidan Hutchinson) knows the Detroit Lions are in a Super Bowl window with the core of the roster what it is right now.
Each season that passes without at least reaching the Super Bowl squeezes the Lions' window shut a little more. The window is absolutely open, and it should remain open. To ignore the idea of even being in one simply ignores reality though, however harsh it may be.
A big question regarding the Lions' chances to win a Super Bowl rests at the feet of quarterback Jared Goff.
Anyone who questions the idea they can get it done will be called a Goff hater by a strong section of fans. But it's completely viable to wonder about the team's ceiling with him under center, and to tangentially wonder if they've already reached it with the NFC Championship Game appearance to close the 2023 season.
Jared Goff makes list of quarterbacks desperate to (and that need to?) win a Super Bowl
On his list of five quarterbacks who are most desperate to win a Super Bowl in 2026, Sayre Bedinger of NFL Spin Zone has Goff at No. 4.
"The Detroit Lions won 15 regular season games during the 2024 season, and got absolutely thrashed by the Washington Commanders in the Divisional Round of the playoffs. It was inexplicable for the team with the #1 offense in football, hosting a playoff game, to get bounced like that."
"And that disappointment sort of carried over to the next year. The Lions didn't make the playoffs at all in 2025. Jared Goff has been to the Super Bowl before (2018 with the Rams) and has proven he can be good enough to lead the Lions there. He just has to prove it when it matters."
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He was of course a younger quarterback back then, but Goff started Super Bowl LIII for the Los Angeles Rams. That game, a 13-3 loss to the New England Patriots, also seemed to be the tipping point that told Rams' head coach Sean McVay he could not win a Super Bowl with Goff (at least that version of him) as his quarterback.
By all outward appearances, Campbell is not yet asking himself if he can win a Super Bowl with Goff as his quarterback. But the urgency to get over the hump is definitely there for all involved, at least this side of Holmes, and the Lions' signal caller has to be feeling it more than anyone.
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