DJ Chark does not have time for doomscrolling during the season.
The Detroit Lions receiver might hop on Instagram to post a story or like a teammate’s picture after a game, but by the end of business Monday, he’s mostly logged off social media for the week.
Still, Chark saw enough negativity early this season from comments on the NFL’s official Instagram page to know exactly how the general public felt about the Lions.
“Gotta stay a poverty franchise forever.”
“Watch the lions beat the packers to lose the first pick.”
“lions defense is so egregiously awful.”
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As much as Chark tried to ignore the comments, they stung enough that as he looks back on them now and thinks about how far the Lions have come in two months — from 1-6 to 7-7 and a couple wins away from making the playoffs — he can’t help but feel he’s part of something special.
“To go from three wins (last year) to starting off 1-6 after we had a lot of hype for ‘Hard Knocks,’ then when we come out and go 1-6 a lot of people threw us away,” Chark said. “And even through the downs, the lows, just to continue to work. Everybody on this team was working. Guys get hurt, guys step up and just don’t complain, they just start figuring out how to win. When we first started winning, it was, we were happy to win, but now it’s actually building into momentum into where we can go somewhere with it, and I think that’s already special. Cause these are the same group of guys that was thrown away not that long ago.”
The Lions visit the Carolina Panthers on Saturday in a game that has significant playoff implications for both teams.
The Panthers (5-9) have clawed their way back into postseason contention after firing head coach Matt Rhule in early October. They sit a game behind the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the decrepit NFC South and will win the division if they win their final three games.
The Lions are one of the hottest teams in football. They’ve won six of their past seven games and need two or three more victories to join the 1970 Cincinnati Bengals as the only teams in NFL history to make the playoffs after a 1-6 start.
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They enter the weekend with a 40% chance of making the playoffs, according to FiveThirtyEight.com, and can clinch a wild card spot as soon as next week.
“We’re obviously not done by any means,” Chark said. “But I think you definitely have to like take a step back and acknowledge that this group of guys really went through a lot and continued to work and continued to be the same group, the same humble group, the same hungry group. Not the flashy guys, none of that. Just go out and work and put their best foot forward, so I think that’s really special.”
The Lions’ turnaround this season is rooted in reasons both big and small.
Jared Goff has played Pro Bowl-caliber football since the start of November. He has 12 touchdowns and one interception the past eight weeks and the Lions, with a finally healthy group of skill players, have the most 30-plus point games in the NFL.
Their defense, with four rookie starters, flipped from one of the leakiest units in the league to one of the stingiest. The Lions have allowed just 19.9 points per game during their hot streak.
They’ve gotten important contributions on special teams, from fake punts to clutch field goals to last week’s punt return touchdown, after kicking issues sabotaged them early in the season.
And all that, Chark said, is the result of the Lions’ never-wavering locker room.
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“I think it’s mainly a credit to the way that they put this team together,” Chark said. “The guys in this room are guys that you know take the same approach as I do, that come in here and make sure they work and grind. Like I said, it was some tough times, but once you get one win, you see how that feels and get another one, then start rolling and that’s what’s been going on here.”
Just six Lions starters — Goff, receiver Josh Reynolds, running back Jamaal Williams, left tackle Taylor Decker, linebacker Alex Anzalone and injured safety DeShon Elliott — have ever played in a playoff game, but Lions coach Dan Campbell said he’s not worried his young team will crumble under the magnitude of what’s at stake.
The Lions have beaten three straight playoff contenders, the New York Jets, Minnesota Vikings and Jacksonville Jaguars, and won their last three road games (against the Jets, New York Giants and Chicago Bears).
And Campbell said he showed his team a breakdown of the NFL playoff picture in a meeting this week so players “know exactly where we’re at in the standings, and we know what’s in front of us, and we know it all starts with this one.”
“We were in the sewer (early this season) and then all of a sudden we’re — life’s great,” Campbell said. “Now, to me it’s, man, the emphasis is on — there again, you can never lose sight. You’ve got to respect the opponent and what they’re capable of. They’ve got a chance to win this division. They’re very much in the hunt, so we understand that. We identify that. We know it’s a physical unit. But the other thing is, man, you don’t know. We’ve got an opportunity and you just don’t know when these opportunities are always going to be there, and so we can’t let this slip through our fingers.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.