Detroit Lions had seven players in ESPN's top-10 rankings

Coming off a trip to the NFC Championship Game last year, the Detroit Lions are lined up as a Super Bowl contender this year. The roster looks better in some key areas, and the core of last year's team remains.

The core of the roster build under general manager Brad Holmes has been the draft, of course. Time will tell if the 2024 draft class builds on that, but the early signs are good.

If you were ranking the league's rosters as a whole, the Lions would be in the top-five. So some individual acknowledgement easily follows from that.

ESPN has finish rolling out their annual position rankings for this year, as determined by a survey of NFL evaluators. Some may quarrel with the placement or outright absence of some players, but the Lions had a lot of players make the tpp-10 in the four-letter network's position rankings.

Detroit Lions well-represented in ESPN position rankings

The Lions had seven players make the top-10 in ESPN's position rankings.

QB Jared Goff (No.9)
RB Jahmyr Gibbs (No. 8)
WR Amon-Ra St. Brown (No. 7)
TE Sam LaPorta (No. 4)
OT Penei Sewell (No. 2)
C Frank Ragnow (No. 8, interior offensive lineman)
DE Aidan Hutchinson (No. 6)

Running back David Montgomery, offensive tackle Taylor Decker, defensive back Brian Branch and safety Ifeatu Melifonwu got honorable mentions or landed in the "others receiving votes" category at their positions, with Branch included as a safety despite mostly playing slot corner as a rookie last year.

it wasn't all roses for Lions players for the evaluators ESPN polled. Some see signs of decline in Ragnow, as if last year's litany of injuries was forgotten. One evaluator suggested St. Brown is aided by offensive scheme more than some other top-end wide receivers, which is a lame effort to try to diminish him.

The Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs also had seven players make the top-10 in ESPN's rankings. Only the San Francisco 49ers had more, with nine.

The Lions could very well challenge for the most players who make ESPN"s top-10 position rankings next year. Which says it all about where they are as a team, and how loaded they are with talent.