The Detroit Lions and their fans have plenty of optimism for the 2023 NFL season.
The team finished last season red-hot, winning eight of their last 10 games and coming very close to claiming a Wild Card playoff spot in the NFC.
Many are picking the Lions to finish with the best record in the NFC North this coming season, but the cold hard reality is that they haven’t won their division since all the way back in 1993.
Every NFC team’s last division title! 👀
Who do you pick to win this season? #NFL pic.twitter.com/7KP6GMjjgH
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) July 10, 2023
In recent years, Detroit had studs such as quarterback Matthew Stafford and wide receiver Calvin Johnson, but they didn’t have much else around the two.
The best they did with Stafford and “Megatron” was an 11-5 finish in 2014, which put them one game shy of the Green Bay Packers’ 12-4 record.
Even in the 1990s, when Detroit was fairly competitive behind Barry Sanders, quite possibly the greatest running back ever, they still had trouble getting over the hump.
Indeed, they haven’t won a single playoff game since the 1991 campaign, when they made it all the way to the NFC Championship Game only to get trounced by the Washington Redskins.
But now, they possess QB Jared Goff, who is coming off one of his best seasons ever, up-and-coming wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown, and stud defensive end Aidan Hutchinson.
The rest of the division looks rather weak, and therefore the window may be open for the Lions to not only finish first but to finally put a postseason game in the win column for the first time in what seems like forever.
NEXT:
Lions CB Makes His Thoughts Clear About Jared Goff