What’s trending in the NFL: 5 reasons to hop on the Detroit Lions bandwagon
Reasons to hop on the Detroit Lions bandwagon
5. Unlikely underdogs: It sounds weird to say the team that’s won its division the past two years and is coming off a 15-win season in which it topped the conference is an underdog, but that is kind of where the Lions have found themselves in 2025. They were a one-and-done in the playoffs in January, laying an egg against the Washington Commanders, then lost both of their coordinators in the offseason. They opened the season with a loss to the Green Bay Packers, where the scoreboard made their performance look better than it actually was.
Meanwhile, the Packers have been on the other end of that conversation. Jordan Love is an ascending quarterback, and they made the big splash by acquiring Micah Parsons just before the regular season. Even after their loss to the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, the Packers remain ahead of the Lions in Super Bowl odds. The Lions are one of the best teams in the conference, but they aren’t even universally accepted as the best team in their division.
4. Dicey decisions: You don’t want boring football, and Dan Campbell doesn’t want to give you boring football. Few calls can top the fourth-down decision and execution last year in Week 14 against the Packers, but Sunday gave us another Campbell classic. The Lions, up 31-24, went for it on fourth down at midfield with less than two minutes left in the game. Jared Goff threw a perfect pass to convert and seal the deal for Detroit. These gutsy calls don’t always work out for Campbell, as we’ve seen on the biggest stage in the playoffs, but you have to respect Campbell’s not wavering from who he is. The ones at the end of games steal the headlines, but Campbell is aggressive throughout, as he showed when the Lions scored a touchdown on a double-pitch on fourth-and-goal on the first play of the fourth quarter. Campbell’s Lions are a hell of a ride, so you better buckle your seatbelt.
3. Secondary storylines: Believe it or not, things have not always been sunshine and daisies for Lions fans, so they’ve sometimes had to find joy secondhand. If you become a Lions fan and things don’t work out, you have automatic admission to the Los Angeles Rams bandwagon, as long as Matthew Stafford is the quarterback. If you want to stay grounded and remember what it felt like before the last few years, you can invest yourself in Aaron Glenn’s New York Jets. The Commanders knocked the Lions out of the playoffs last year, but their franchise turnaround has Lions fingerprints on it, with assistant general manager Lance Newmark and senior vice president of football operations Brandon Sosna, as well as assistant quarterbacks coach and Lions 2022 “Hard Knocks” star David Blough. Ben Johnson was beloved during his time in Detroit, but he doesn’t qualify for this category, for obvious reasons.
2. Staying power: Hopping on this bandwagon isn’t just a short-term fix for your football fandom. Detroit’s core is young, so you’re set for a while. Jared Goff is 30, but he’s under contract for the next few years. Jahmyr Gibbs is 23; Sam LaPorta, Penei Sewell, Kerby Joseph, Jameson Williams and Terion Arnold are all 24; and Amon-Ra St. Brown and Aidan Hutchinson are 25 years old.
1. They are legitimately good: You don’t want to invest your time in a new team unless there’s a real chance for a happy ending. The Lions didn’t look great in Week 1 and they might be figuring things out on offense and defense right now, but they are a good football team. The talent is undeniable, and Campbell has been there long enough to know this team’s quality culture is not a fluke.
Not ranked: Homegrown talent — One of the coolest things about the Lions is that they built this thing themselves. Their coach was a player in Detroit and never served as a coordinator before taking the Lions job, which is his first full-time head-coaching gig (he had a stint as the Miami Dolphins’ interim coach). Goff is a transplant, but Arnold, Gibbs, LaPorta, Hutchinson, Williams, Sewell, St. Brown and many other key players are guys the Lions drafted.
Road to Santa Clara
The five teams with the best chance at winning the Super Bowl.
5. Los Angeles Chargers: Lost in the special teams hoopla of this weekend is that the Chargers walked off the Denver Broncos to move to 3-0. Najee Harris’ injury was tough to watch, but this is why they drafted Omarion Hampton in the first round in April.
4. Detroit Lions: It was hard to know who the Lions were, with the remarks being quite bad after the Week 1 loss and hard to read because of the opponent in Week 2’s big win over the Chicago Bears. Monday night’s performance was a much better indicator, especially if you look past Baltimore’s garbage-time touchdown at the end.
3. Green Bay Packers: Sunday’s loss to the Browns is the kind of loss that doesn’t necessarily make you re-evaluate how you felt about a very good team, but it is one that could bite the Packers late in the season when playoff seeding and tiebreakers are on the table. Green Bay’s game was off even before the late interception and field goal block that led to a collapse, but teams have off games. The offense now gets the Dallas Cowboys defense that has made the ghost of Russell Wilson and young Caleb Williams look like Hall of Famers in back-to-back weeks. Emotion will be a factor, as well as Parsons’ return to Dallas for the first time.
2. Philadelphia Eagles: One thing I’ve learned about the Eagles in recent years is that you can’t judge them on style points because they often play to the level of their competition. The Bears beat the Cowboys 31-14 on Sunday, yet the Eagles sneaked by Dallas 24-20 at home just two weeks prior. In Week 13 last season, the Eagles had a one-possession win over the Ravens and then had a one-possession win over the Carolina Panthers seven days later. The Eagles don’t always look pretty, but they usually get the job done.
1. Buffalo Bills: It was a hard-fought divisional win over the Dolphins on Thursday, giving the Bills extra time to prepare for Week 4 in a week they probably aren’t overly thrilled with their most recent performance. Pray for the New Orleans Saints.
The Bills vs. the Saints might be the biggest mismatch in the NFL. (Bryan M. Bennett / Getty Images)
Not ranked: Baltimore Ravens — It’s fascinating to think that, barring a tie, either the Ravens or the Kansas City Chiefs will be 1-3 after four weeks. The Chiefs offense has not been clicking, but Xavier Worthy could be returning this week, and Patrick Mahomes is still Patrick Mahomes. It feels weird to say this about the Ravens, but aside from limiting Joe Flacco and the Cleveland Browns, the defense has looked bad. Their Week 1 loss conceded 41 points on the road, and Monday night’s loss gave up 38 points at home. The Bills and Lions are good teams, but the Ravens can’t make a deep playoff run if the defense doesn’t improve.
Bottom five
The five teams with the best chance to land the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
5. New York Jets: Though everyone marvels at the three field goal blocks in clutch time Sunday, leave it to the Jets to be the one team from the trio that still loses the game. We did get a great Aaron Glenn dance, which is even better when set to Earth, Wind and Fire. The fact it happened on the 21st of September is the cherry on top.
4. New York Giants: The benching of Russell Wilson was inevitable, and probably would have happened sooner if Wilson didn’t have the benefit of facing an awful Cowboys defense in Week 2. But never fear, I’m sure Brian Daboll will pull Jaxson Dart off the field randomly for a couple of plays to put Wilson in the game to hand the ball off to a running back.
3. Miami Dolphins: Divisional games can always be weird, but the Dolphins’ hanging around with the Bills was a better representation of what a team with that kind of talent on the roster should resemble. It’s not enough to inspire hope for this season, but maybe we will re-evaluate their basement based on their next two games against the Jets and the Panthers.
2. New Orleans Saints: Speaking of rooting for the Lions, Campbell’s last year in the NFL was 2009 in New Orleans. He spent the whole year on injured reserve and didn’t get a Super Bowl ring, but Campbell’s last stop before getting the head spot in Detroit was a five-year run as an assistant on Sean Payton’s staff. It helps that Campbell is as likable a head coach as you’ll find in today’s NFL. Congratulations, Saints fans. You have an honorary membership to hop on the Lions bandwagon.
1. Tennessee Titans: It was already a bad start to the season when Brian Callahan didn’t know the rules well enough to challenge a big play in the Titans’ one close game this season. Now, he’s handing off play-calling duties and the front office is trading away starters. The Titans have the worst point differential in the league. Fire up the mock drafts.
Not ranked: Dallas Cowboys — For the second straight year, the Cowboys’ Week 2 performance made somebody look good enough to draw false conclusions and hit pause on inevitable demotions. The Giants weren’t sold on Wilson as the starter after Week 1, but his lighting up the Cowboys defense bought him an extra week before the team switched to Dart. Last year, it was the Saints’ 44-19 win in Dallas that had some wondering whether Klint Kubiak could be trending toward a head-coaching job. Instead, the Saints lost seven consecutive games afterward and fired their coach. You can even go back to 2023, when Joshua Dobbs led the Arizona Cardinals to a win over Dallas — his first of his NFL career — only to be traded away five weeks later.
The defense is bad, and the offense is getting hammered with injuries. But there’s a real chance Brandon Aubrey could set a new record for longest field goal made, so there is that going for them.