Dre Greenlaw, San Francisco 49ers (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
The Detroit Lions lost their opener to San Francisco. There are no silver linings for a team that chronically loses, but there just might be a glimmer of hope.
As we all know, new head coach Dan Campbell has been a straight shooter with the media and fans. While he has talked about the goals of how his Lions will play, he has also been frank that this is not the most talented team in the NFL and that there is still plenty of work to do.
Both Campbell and new general manager Brad Holmes came to Detroit understanding that the Lions’ best player Matthew Stafford had requested a trade and with that news, there was no way around this being a complete rebuild. So they rolled up their sleeves and started the process of turning over this roster.
Holmes shopped in the bargain bin for free agency. No big names outside of re-signing Romeo Okwara, just players that had something that interested Holmes and Campbell and came at an economical price tag. Most of which are on one-year contracts.
Can Lions fans take a moral victory from Sunday’s loss?
The draft followed and once again Holmes received high marks for the job he did. As a matter of fact, seventh-round pick, Jermar Jefferson was the only one in the rookie class to not contribute in some way against the 49ers. But there is still much more to do.
After the Lions’ loss on Sunday, Campbell was the first to say that their margin for error is paper-thin and that they made too many mistakes to overcome. We’ve heard coaches talk about making too many mistakes before, not many have been willing to be forthcoming about the lack of talent on their team without actually throwing their players under the bus.
Despite the late rally to make the score respectable, if we examine the first three quarters the Lions were utterly dominated and played poorly in many facets of the game. There was very little to feel good about, but that ‘very little’ might just be a good starting point.