What a season for the Detroit Lions. Let’s just go ahead and list all the accolades again. They had the the best record in franchise history, won their first division title since 1993, won their first playoff game since 1991 and were less than a touchdown away from going to their first Super Bowl. That is just an incredible run.
Here’s the thing though, much of that was expected. That’s not the miracle that I’m referring to in the title of this article. The Lions were expected to accomplish a lot of the stuff they accomplished. The stuff that like the extra playoff win and a trip to the NFC championship game was this team showing they were ready for bigger things. It wasn’t a miracle though. It was expected that it could happen.
The miracle this team pulled off came later in the week when the Lions found a way to hold on to their entire coaching staff. That wasn’t easy. The Lions kept the guy who was considered to be the number one coaching candidate in the cycle in Ben Johnson and they were able to keep the defensive coordinator that also had a bunch of interviews and was recently voted, by players, as the NFL’s most liked and respected coordinator. It’s simply a miracle in a world where coordinators are getting hired left and right out there.
Seriously, as Jeremy points out. This is not normal. Teams are either losing or moving on from coordinators at a rapid rate. Just look at the amount of guys that got on in 2024. It’s insane. That’s half the leagues offensive coordinators. More often than not, these guys are moving on to be head coaches. It’s not that the Lions guys can’t do that too, it’s that they don’t want to. That’s even weirder and it saysa lot about how special the culture is in Detroit.
Not only did the Lions manage to keep both coordinators, they also kept other coaches on the team that were expected to have good shots at becoming coordinators elsewhere. Passing game coordinator Tanner Engstrand had OC interviews with the Patriots, Bucs and Seahawks and receivers coach Antwaan Randle El had an interview to be the Bucs OC. They’re almost completely out of the woods. Still waiting to hear about Seattle when it comes to Engstrand.
It’s not just the coaching staff. The Lions were able to hang onto COO Mike Disner after he withdrew himself from consideration for the Panthers general manager job. Even the front office guys want to stay put.
The Lions were supposed to lose everyone and there were supposed to be issues with the loss of everyone. All the possible questions that could have been asked about how do you replace this guy or that guy are gone. The Lions can now focus on making sure they build a team that can go right back to where they were this season and make sure they get over the hump next time.
Continuity is such an underrated thing in the NFL. The Lions don’t have to install a new offense or a new defense and the players don’t have to learn any of those things. The Lions can now carry on with the things that they already know while introducing some new twists and turns to keep things fresh.
I just can’t say it enough. This is exactly where you want to be as a franchise. You really want to get to a point where you have a trusted group that can grow together and you don’t have to keep putting in new pieces. This is what championship teams do.
The Lions next move is to score big in free agency and continue to have the draft success that they’ve had in the last three years. If they can strengthen their defensive personnel while maintaining one of the very best offenses in the league, this team could be on it’s way to it’s first Super Bowl title.