This 2024-2025 NFL season has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Detroit Lions fans like myself. In the four years since the mid-season firing of their previous coach, Matt Patricia, the Detroit Lions have gone from being one of the league’s biggest punchlines to a serious contender for this year’s Super Bowl. This renaissance, spearheaded by head coach Dan Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes, has breathed new life into, not just the Lions, but the city of Detroit as well. The result of this rebuild has been securing the No. 1 seed in the NFC, a bye week in the first round of playoffs and only two home games in their way of making the Super Bowl. This is a great thing for the Detroit Lions, but I believe the team has the opportunity to be the subject of more than just a feel-good story, but the future of the NFL.
In many ways, the Lions are radically different from most other NFL teams, and they have a duo of two star running backs carrying the running game equally. Teams have had two starting running backs before, but they have never played as a duo quite like David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs do. The Lions also have an insane amount of depth across the offense, where any previously unknown receiver or tight end can have a breakout night. The Lions also have some of the gutsiest play-calling the league has ever seen. The Lions go for it on fourth down far more often than any other team in the league. A few examples of which have been well within their 50-yard line, one of the riskiest places a team could go for it. This has not only failed to stop the Lions, but it has proven to be an integral part of their success. There have been more creative trick plays every week that have been thought up by coaching staff, and no two game plans ever look the same.
Midway through the year, it truly seemed like the bottom was beginning to drop out, and many longtime fans began to get nervous. Aidan Hutchinson went down with a season-ending injury in the game against the Cowboys, and key players on defense followed suit shortly after. In some positions, third-string players were starting games. It seemed like this once-in-a-lifetime season was going to come crashing down around Detroit. Then, it didn’t. Despite having the most injured defense in the league by far, despite playing against several good teams, including division rivals, despite NFC North being more competitive than it’s ever been, despite everything, the Lions only lost one more game in the period after Hutchinson went down. This ended the season 15-2, a franchise record.
This is what makes the Lions different from anything we have ever seen before. The injuries the Lions suffered this season would have left any other team dead in the water, yet the Lions held on. No matter what state they are playing in, the Lions are the team to beat in today’s NFL. They look poised to make the Super Bowl this year, and that doesn’t seem likely to change in the coming years, as they also happen to have one of the youngest rosters in the league.
This style of play seems likely to spread throughout the league, as different teams are lining up to interview the Lions’ offensive and defensive coordinators for head coaching positions. This is why the Lions are the future of the NFL. They are a team different from any that have come before them, and whether the league likes it or not, they are about to become the new normal.
