Penei Sewell, Detroit Lions (Photo by Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports)
The Detroit Lions are not expected to do much winning this fall. Will the fans be disappointed if they do exceed expectations?
It is almost time for training camp to open. Lions fans are starting to get excited like they do every year. And like so many other seasons that have come before, this is the beginning of a new era.
Unfortunately, all the previous eras have ended with a thud. Since the championship Lions of 1957, this franchise has not turned out a real contender. All the hope of those bygone era’s eventually turned into shattered dreams.
But as we approach the 2021 campaign, things seem a little different. Unlike all those years of general managers and coaches telling us how close the Lions are to being serious contenders, this regime, despite using the word ‘retooling’, has admitted by their actions that this franchise needs to be rebuilt.
New general manager Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell have talked about the importance of constantly building for two years down the road. In other words, trying to create sustainable success by continual proactive building.
There is never such a thing as too much talent and quite frankly filling the roster with quality players is ultimately the goal of each NFL team. It’s just that the Lions don’t have too many of them right now and it takes time to turn around the entire roster of a football team.
Some patience is required. However, the Motor City faithful have in general been pretty happy with how Holmes has gone about building the Lions so far. His attention to the trenches is giving the team an opportunity to have a presence at the line of scrimmage and to exert their will upon opponents.
Football is a physical game and despite all the high-tech aerial assaults that are released each Sunday in the NFL, games are still won in the trenches. Yet once you have control of that valuable strip of real estate, you still need skill players that can make plays.
This would be what the Lions are missing the most right now; playmakers. So for those who understand that it does take at least a little time to build a winning roster, this season is only the first step towards the product Brad Holmes is building. With that in mind, would some fans be disappointed with too much success this season?