Pride of Detroit

Way back in November, as part of our fundraising campaign to raise money for two causes—The Alzheimer’s Association and the Crisis Text Line—I offered up an embarrassing memory. Back in 2015, I was a distraught young man. From the confines of a California apartment, I had just watched my Alma Mater, the Michigan Wolverines, lose…

Ask anyone around the NFL, and they will tell you, training camps are a grind—both mentally and physically. So when HBO came calling last year for the Detroit Lions to potentially be their focus for the newest edition of their critically-acclaimed series “Hard Knocks”, it would have been easy for the team to try and…

Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams spent much of the team’s offseason program under the microscope and for good reason. The Lions spent a lot of draft capital on the former Alabama receiver—sending Pick 32, 34, and 66 in the 2021 NFL Draft to get Williams and the 46th overall pick. Given that we had…

It’s the time of year when Detroit Lions fans’ hopes for the upcoming season are at an all-time high. Between slow-mo videos from OTAs and reports of chemistry building between players, the vibes are good leading up to the season opener. That’s probably true of any team, really.

As I pointed out earlier in the week, my biggest takeaway from Detroit Lions minicamp and OTAs was the drastic improvement of the team’s secondary. As always, though, there is a downside to one unit performing well in practice—the corresponding unit on the other side of the ball not playing well.

The new season will be here before we know it, and most of the narratives regarding the Detroit Lions are overwhelmingly positive. It does feel good to be the national darling, and the analytics—and betting markets—support this optimism as well. Still, things rarely play out exactly as expected.

All offseason, Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes and coach Dan Campbell insisted they needed to add more competition to the quarterback room. So when they opted to re-sign Nate Sudfeld as the team’s primary backup behind Jared Goff, there was some warranted skepticism. Yes, they ended up drafting Hendon Hooker in the third round,…

This year, the Detroit Lions approached linebackers coach Kelvin Sheppard about taking on a bigger role, something coach Dan Campbell believed the 35-year-old coach earned over the past two years. “(Defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn) and I talked and we felt like it was time to put more on him, especially this year,” Campbell said last…

A few weeks ago, we learned that Detroit Lions fans span the entire globe, likely covering every single state in America and a countless amount of countries that I was unable to keep track of. For today’s Question of the Day, I am interested in how you became a part of this Pride of Detroit…

Now that this regime has flipped the Detroit Lions from their culture to their performance on the field, Detroit is a desirable destination. That means some of the league’s biggest names no longer rule the Lions out as they once did. Analysts and writers are now frequently suggesting Detroit as a landing spot for some…

On Monday, the Detroit Lions held their last open-to-the-media OTA (offseason training activity) of the 2023 spring. As is commonplace under coach Dan Campbell, the Lions veterans/established players were allowed to get an early jump on their summer break following last week’s minicamp, only asking first and second-year players to stay in Allen Park for…

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are an old rival of the Detroit Lions, harkening back to their days together in the NFC Central. From 1977 to 2001, the two teams shared the division with the Bears, Packers and Vikings, before the league split into four-team divisions and the Bucs moved down to the NFC South and…

Detroit Lions defensive back Brian Branch was the final player on hand at the 2023 NFL Draft to hear his name selected. After attending the event on Thursday—hoping and expecting to be drafted in the first round—Branch returned on Friday, not wanting to miss out on his once-in-a-lifetime moment of hearing his name called and…

The Detroit Lions are expecting bigger things out of their secondary in 2023. A unit that ranked among the NFL’s worst last year, the defensive backfield has been buffed with free agent additions C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Cameron Sutton, and Emmanuel Moseley. However, Detroit also has some home-grown talent that should help the unit achieve great improvement.…

The main storyline of an NFL offseason is the additions made in free agency, the NFL Draft, and trades. Yet on occasion, the subtractions can be just as interesting. Perhaps a team moved on from a distracting or controversial player. Perhaps they cut a regressing and expensive veteran. Perhaps they let a notable player or…

This past Thursday, Fanatics posted a four-minute video on Twitter showing clips of rookies who attended the Rookie Premiere event in what they call the “Fanatics Locker Room.” On a side wall, a recorded message was played from an NFL veteran player (mostly retired, but some active) that meant a lot to the rookie in…

We here in Detroit have had a long history of… let’s just say “contentious” columnists. In particular, opinion pieces surrounding the Detroit Lions have ranged from reactionary to alarmist to downright stupid. Of course, this franchise has warranted it for decades and decades of losing, but with the team legitimately turning a corner now, the…

The Detroit Lions concluded mandatory minicamp last week, which—for many Lions—means the last team activities before training camp at the end of July. While there is still a week of OTAs left, veterans are not expected to be around. In other words, most of the big observations about this team’s offseason activities are done.

We are nearly there. The thick of the NFL offseason is about to be upon us, with the next major event not until late July, when players report for mandatory training camp. For the Detroit Lions, that means long hours spent at their facility in Allen Park, Michigan. And while there isn’t necessarily anything wrong…

Former Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker is, without question, the Detroit Lions’ most interesting draft pick. Selected in the third round, Hooker’s range of possibilities with the Lions is the largest of any selection made this past April. While he’ll have a slow start to his NFL career—battling through ACL tear recovery and a steep learning…