Will the Lions take the next step in the 2025 season and make the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history?
Or will some key staff changes, most notably the loss of both coordinators to head coaching jobs, result in a step back from a 15-2 campaign in 2024?
Those are some of the questions pondered by a panel of ESPN NFL experts in an offseason roundtable published this week.
Of the 13 experts polled, four picked the Lions to make the Super Bowl in 2026. Matt Bowen, the lone analyst to pick them to win that game, wrote that the Lions can overcome the loss of their two coordinators if Aidan Hutchinson comes back healthy for a full season. “This is still Dan Campbell’s football program,” he wrote.
NFL analyst Mike Tannenbaum predicted the Lions to win the NFC with a similar premise: he picked Hutchinson to record 18 sacks, win NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors and lead the Lions to the Super Bowl.
Three analysts, though, picked the Lions as the most likely NFL team to regress in 2025 for a variety of reasons.
There’s the simple: it’s hard to do better than a 15-2 season. “When you tie for the most wins in the NFL, you have the most room to fall,” wrote Field Yates, who predicted a 12-5 campaign.
Other analysts, though, point to the loss of the Lions’ two coordinators as evidence the team will take a significant step back next year.
“History shows teams often struggle in similar situations,” sports betting analyst Pamela Maldonado wrote.
