DETROIT — Super Bowl week usually is a nice time to make some plans, bust out those favorite recipes and enjoy the end of the NFL season with the pageantry that comes along with the big game.
Detroit Lions fans are more than used to consuming everything that comes with the Super Bowl from the outside looking in. However, there is a weird feeling around these parts this time, with a sour taste lingering and haunting thoughts of what could have been.
Dan Campbell knows it’s hard to get back near this stage and that you never know if you might get another chance. The Lions head coach nailed that one because despite winning a team-record 15 games, back-to-back division titles and grabbing the No. 1 seed, they are watching from home with 30 other teams, just like every other season in franchise history has ended during the Super Bowl era.
The Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles will meet in the Super Bowl for the second time in three years. The Chiefs survived the season in tighter-than-usual fashion, and the Eagles persisted despite outside doubters and a ton of noise surrounding their key pieces and head coach.
Philadelphia did what Detroit couldn’t — and did what most expected the Lions to do, in wiping the floor with the Washington Commanders in the playoffs.
The Lions had home-field advantage and their coordinators back for the fourth straight year, a rarity in the NFL. Yet they went one-and-done, falling to a team led by a rookie quarterback and a first-year head coach in the divisional round.
That stings, and it should.
This fanbase remains haunted by “what ifs?” We’ve said it before, but this year was supposed to be different. Everything appeared to be aligned, even despite the injuries piling up throughout the season.
And somehow, falling short this year stings more than winning nothing of substance while legendary running back Barry Sanders or wide receiver Calvin Johnson were tearing up the NFL’s record book in Detroit.
These Lions have a proven head coach, general manager and a roster built for these moments, but, yet, here we are again. “Wait until next year.”
There is real belief in that saying this time, but it doesn’t get any easier. Maybe next year?
The task doesn’t get any easier. Two coordinators are gone, with Ben Johnson taking over as head coach of the Chicago Bears and Aaron Glenn landing the job with the New York Jets.
On top of that, there have been a ton of shifts on Detroit’s coaching staff. They hired John Morton as offensive coordinator and promoted linebackers coach Kelvin Sheppard to defensive coordinator. There is built-in familiarity and trust with both, but replacing Glenn and Johnson won’t be seamless overnight.
Glenn has been Campbell’s right-hand man from the jump. Johnson was integral in getting quarterback Jared Goff back on the map as a bankable starter while leading the team’s high-powered offense.
However, Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes have repeatedly proven to have an elite feel for their staff and how to build the roster. Yes, there are some key pending free agents, but the foundation remains intact on both sides of the ball.
Goff has improved every season in Detroit. His foundation of that offensive line and young weapons Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jahmyr Gibbs, David Montgomery, Jameson Williams and Sam LaPorta isn’t going anywhere.
The Lions committed more than $400 million to keep Goff, St. Brown and Penei Sewell in town, then extended interior defender Alim McNeill during the season. All-Pro safety Kerby Joseph and the dominant Aidan Hutchinson are likely next in line for big-money extensions.
They have mastered the art of building — and retaining — through the draft. Since Campbell and Holmes took over, there are only three players not on the team’s roster in some capacity. That is an elite retention rate that speaks to the strength of the franchise.
Whether the Lions swing for the fences or not for a star-level player like Myles Garrett this offseason, the foundation is strong. And the ability to build and develop through the draft or attract starting-level players in free agency isn’t changing after one disappointing loss.
Campbell and Holmes have turned Detroit into a free-agent destination. It’s a product of the collaborative ways they run the team, not to mention how they treat and empower players.
It’s a favorite line of MLive’s Dungeon of Doom podcast, and Holmes even said it himself: As long as Campbell is running the show, these Lions are in a better spot than most and in great hands.
Campbell promoted Johnson to offensive coordinator after the failed hire of Anthony Lynn in Year 1. He’s also the same head coach who brought Glenn and a beloved coaching staff with him to Detroit.
He just needs to do it again.
There are plenty of holes to fill after losing receivers coach Antwaan Randle El, tight ends coach Steve Heiden, passing game coordinator Tanner Engstrand, defensive line coach Terrell Williams, assistant quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett and assistant defensive line coach Cam Davis.
“Obviously, we were prepared to lose those guys (Johnson and Glenn),” Holmes said last month. “Those guys were great coaches, and just call it what it is: We were lucky to have both of them this year. But I know that Dan has been preparing for it, and I have full faith and trust in Dan to make sure that we’re going to have the right people in place in those spots, and he’s had to encounter that before.
“Not at the coordinator level, but other position coaches and it’s always worked out, so it’ll be good.”
So, go ahead and make that favorite recipe for Super Bowl weekend. Feel free to stay at home, or be brave and set out to that watch party, as you and other Lions fans have done for the last six decades.
But know the anger and confusion is authentic. It’s hard to ignore the feeling that these Lions should be playing this weekend and that these beat writer’s words should be coming from New Orleans.
The foundation is here to be back having this conversation for the foreseeable future. But, as Campbell alluded to, life in the NFL moves fast. Still, that doesn’t change the burn and weird feelings associated with this weekend.
The Lions have taught their fans to believe again, with no limits. And the team’s window for contention remains wide open. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
