Sunday marks the beginning of the 2015-16 Detroit Lions campaign that hopefully will end with a Super Bowl victory and the first major sports championship for the Motor City since 2008. Not to mention the first for the Lions.
The preseason is finally over and the games will actually count.
The Lions are coming off of an 11-5 season but they still bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. The club doesn’t have a playoff victory since 1991, so lets hope that this year will be the first of many playoff winning streaks to come.
Expectations are high for the Lions, just look at what our staff said they do this year. The average predicted record is 10-6, which likely won’t get them into the playoffs as anything higher than a sixth seeded wildcard.
So let’s take a look at the 2015 Detroit Lions season.
Key Games
Monday Night Football – October 5th at Seattle
This is Detroit’s first chance of the season to show up on the big stage. Too bad they have to travel out to Seattle, host of the 12th man and likely get their butt’s kicked. If the Lions can shut down Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch, then they have a shot at containing Russell Wilson.
Sunday Across the Pond – November 1st vs. Kansas City
The Detroit Lions won their debut in England last season with a come from behind win over the Atlanta Falcons. They will get a more quality opponent this season in Kansas City. The Chiefs can flat-out get to the quarterback and that worries me. Matthew Stafford hasn’t gotten injured for the last several seasons and I don’t want that streak to end in London.
Thanksgiving Tradition – November 26th vs. Philadelphia
The Lions have always hosted a Thanksgiving day game and have often laid an absolute stinker. The Lions need to keep the high-flying Eagles offense contained. The will have a short week to prep for this complex offense, but that doesn’t mean the Eagles won’t have the same short week of prep to overcome.
Thursday Night Football – December 3rd vs. Green Bay
Back-to-back Thursday night games and they are very important. This is the Lions one opportunity to get a win over the Packers at home so Detroit will have to take advantage of it. Both teams will have a full week of prep after playing on Thanksgiving day.
Monday Night Football Round 2 – December 21st at New Orleans
This is the Lions last chance to ball out on the national stage as the travel to a very mediocre New Orleans team. The Saints still have Drew Brees, but he doesn’t have nearly the weapons to throw to as he’s had in years past.
The Offense: Building off last year
This is the second year that Matthew Stafford will be paired with offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and head coach Jim Caldwell. Offensively things didn’t always click last year between quarterback Matthew Stafford and the coaching staff. This is the second year together, so you’d assume things would get better.
The Offense: The Running Game
Reggie Bush has departed after being cut with two years left on his deal after being injury prone and ineffective. Joique Bell hasn’t played a snap in the preseason and has had off-season surgeries two years in a row. The Lions now have invested a second round pick on Nebraska running back Ameer Abdullah to help solve the running game that lets be frank, has to be better.
Matthew Stafford can zing it around the yard, but the Lions cannot rely on him to win games by himself. He just isn’t that type of quarterback, despite our hopes for him to be.
The Defense: Still ticking
After a strong 2014 in the first year with Teryl Austin, the Lions look to off set the loss of Ndamukong Suh and remain a top 10 defense in the NFL. Will the return of veteran linebacker Stephen Tulloch help support that line in stopping the oppositions running game? How about the secondary? Is Darius Slay ready to take that next step?
The Defense: Offsetting the loss of Suh
It doesn’t matter if you’re the New England Patriots or the Jacksonville Jaguars, losing a player of Ndamukong Suh’s caliber hurts and it hurts a lot. However the Lions are a team that’s in very good position to maybe not totally replace Suh’s production but adapt to it.
Newly signed defensive lineman Haloti Ngata won’t replicate what Suh brought to the table but he’s not slouch either. Keep in mind Suh’s arguably the best defensive lineman in the game today and his only replacement is himself. Ngata however should do a fine job plugging up that middle not having to worry as much on other aspects considering a strong supporting cast.
That strong supporting cast includes Ziggy Ansah and Jason Jones off the edges and Tyrunn Walker at the left defensive tackle spot.
The Defense: Linebacking support
Despite the quality pieces the Lions still have on the defensive line, they’ll still need help from their linebackers to help move on from Suh.
Luckily for the Lions, they’re extremely deep when it comes to linebacker.
Stephen Tulloch makes his return to the team after tearing his ACL Stephen Tulloching last season which should help arguably Detroit’s best defensive player last season DeAndre Levy become even more dangerous. Additionally it’s going to be interesting to see what Tahir Whitehead can do coming off such a strong 2014 and if Kyle Van Noy can get things together.
The only downside here is Levy won’t be starting the season healthy.
The Defense: Darius Slay taking that next step
Coming off a breakout 2014, Darius Slay doesn’t lack confidence but can he capitalize off what he did last season and truly become a difference maker in that Lions secondary?
Detroit has been starving for that shutdown corner which is probably the hardest discoverable asset for any NFL team. If you have a Revis like guy in his prime you’ll go a long way in making the opposition one-dimensional. Slay certainly looks to have that potential, it’s all about execution now on the field.
Final Expectations
I expect the Detroit Lions to be a 9-7 football team as outlined in our game by game predictions which won’t be good enough for playoff football. There NFC North is just too good and the Detroit Lions aren’t good enough to unseat the Green Bay Packers despite all the injuries they’ve suffered.
Adam “Dorf” Waltersdorf and Adam Hernandez (@TMSNXAdam) contributed to this preview.