Detroit Lions have been completely remade in 2 years: ‘It’s a huge difference’

Amon-Ra St. Brown knows how far the Detroit Lions have come.

“Coming in as a rookie, I don’t think the Lions had any hype really,” the third-year receiver said Sunday. “From now to then, it’s a huge difference.”

Coach Dan Campbell can see how far they still have to go.

The Lions opened training camp Sunday with sky-high expectations that are unlike anything they’ve experienced in St. Brown’s 23 years on earth.

They’re everyone’s favorite to win the NFC North. They’re a popular pick to reach the Super Bowl. Their bandwagon is so full locally and nationally that they ran out of free tickets to attend training camp when they made them available to the public last week and they’ve had to turn away media for credential requests.

It’s a welcome change for a team that struggled to fill Ford Field two years ago, when St. Brown was a rookie and Campbell was in his first year as coach. And it’s one Campbell is doing his best to steel the organization for.

“I think as always the thing that’s going to worry you is the hype train,” Campbell said. “I mean, as with most coaches. This thing has just taken off and it’s out of control right now, and that’s fine as long as we stay focused on the job at hand and the work. I just keep going back to that. We got to put the work in and earn it.”

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The Lions earned their plaudits last year by playing some of the best football of anyone in the NFL over the season’s final 10 weeks.

They won eight of their final 10 games after a 1-6 start and narrowly missed the playoffs despite beating the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field in Week 18.

Their hot play down the stretch, coupled with a young roster, active offseason and dubious division, have made them the betting favorites to win their first division title in 30 years.

The Packers traded four-time MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets this offseason and will roll with the inexperienced Jordan Love under center. The defending NFC North champion Minnesota Vikings cut leading rusher Dalvin Cook, leading tackler Eric Kendricks, second-leading receiver Adam Thielen and double-digit sack defensive end Za’Darius Smith this offseason. And the Chicago Bears are coming off a season in which they had the worst record in the NFL.

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“The so-called hype train is, I don’t know, I think it’s funny to me that like you go 9-8, you don’t make the playoffs and now you’re all of a sudden a favorite,” Lions quarterback Jared Goff said. “Of course we’ve got good players, we’ve got good coaches, we’ve got a good team, but we haven’t done anything and we have a lot of work to do and Minnesota won 13 games last year, Green Bay has won the division a handful of times the last handful of years, so we’ve got some work to do to put a stamp on who we want to be and are nowhere near that yet, but we’re on our way.”

That, in essence, was Campbell’s message to his team before it opened camp with a 90-minute non-padded practice on a sunny morning in Allen Park.

The Lions have a deep roster, with Goff, St. Brown and a veteran line leading one of the most potent offenses in the NFL. They have a young defensive nucleus full of budding playmakers and a revamped secondary rounded out with free agent additions Cam Sutton, C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Emmanuel Moseley. They are capable of playing with anyone in the NFL, and will get a chance to prove that in Week 1 when they face the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.

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Campbell has never shied away from big expectations, and he’s not about to start. But he made clear to his team this weekend there’s only one way to make those expectations whole.

“Everything I told them was about work,” Campbell said. “It’s about the work. And I’ve said that from Day 1, it’ll always be the same message. It’s about work. That’s what we do. You got to go earn your right every year. It doesn’t matter what the players are, the coaches, expectations, where you were, where you’re going. We got to work, man, and so this is Day 1 of that.”

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.