Detroit Lions fans are probably sitting at home wondering what tweaks the team could possibly make to look at hard-nosed as the New England Patriots or as free-flowing as the Seattle Seahawks in 2026. After all, it's obvious that these two teams have figured out something that the other 30 teams in the league haven't.
Well, there's one key to their respective successes that fans shouldn't overlook, according to Lions writer John Whiticar: consistency.
"When you look back at the Patriots’ and Seahawks’ road to the Super Bowl, you see two teams that were consistently good or great. When I look back at the Lions, I see a team that was either really hot or really cold—teams like that rarely make the Super Bowl...Against the Commanders, the Lions played their most complete game of the season, with both the offense and defense humming. They followed it up with arguably their worst game of the season, an embarrassing nine-point display against the Philadelphia Eagles."
Lions were missing consistency behind top roster in 2025
Detroit, at this juncture, isn't at a point where they can just reset in the ways that Seattle and New England were able to do. The Patriots suffered through Mac Jones to land Drake Maye, while the Seahawks made a bit of a "risky" move by trading Geno Smith and signing Sam Darnold. A move, mind you, that was not received very well by fans at the time.
Detroit is actually in a far better position to achieve the consistency that Whiticar is referring to than these two squads were and are. They already have key players signed to extensions, needing to just sign Jahmyr Gibbs and likely Jack Campbell to extensions next. Patching up their O-line and finding another edge rusher is basically all that's necessary for them to get back to the postseason.
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The lack of those two things showed itself throughout the season, with the team bouncing back and forth between wins and losses and never really establishing a consistent winning streak beyond the first few picked up to begin the 2025 season.
That was before injuries ravaged them, again, and before it was very obvious that a solution to Frank Ragnow retiring couldn't be "shift Graham Glasgow over to center and see what happens,"
Detroit is unbelievably primed to dominate the NFC North next season once again, but the fate of their success really just lies with Brad Holmes. He has to have an A+ offseason, or he risks leaving the Lions open to another up and down season with no consistency, and another year on the brink of missing out on the postseason.