Coming off the franchise's most successful season since 1991, the Detroit Lions face a great deal of uncertainty heading into 2015 thanks to an inconsistent quarterback, a star receiver coming off an injury-plagued season and key free agents leaving for greener pastures.
No free-agent loss will loom larger, literally and figuratively, than Ndamukong Suh. He's been the most dominant defensive tackle in football since being drafted in 2010 and isn't someone Detroit can replace.
Michael Renner of Pro Football Focus also pointed out that Suh has become one of the most versatile defensive players in the NFL:
Besides the obviously attractive feature of elite level play, Suh also offers scheme diversity. He’s been touted as a prototypical 3-technique in a 4-3 ever since college, but that wasn’t even his main position last season. Instead Suh’s primary role was actually left defensive tackle where he would bounce inside and outside of the right guard depending on the formation and defensive call.
In addition to losing Suh, the Lions parted ways with Nick Fairley, leaving the defensive tackle spot in a state of flux. The team figures to address the position at some point in the draft, though it's hard to imagine the defense allowing the second-fewest yards and third-fewest points like it did in 2014.
With all the turnover on defense, quarterback Matthew Stafford immediately becomes the most important player for the Lions. He's been erratic throughout his career, though it was never more obvious than in 2014, when he threw for 4,257 yards, 22 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
Lions offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi told Ashley Dunkak of CBS Detroit he's expecting to see Stafford attempt more passes deep down the field in 2015:
Our biggest thing is, in order to win football games, you’ve got to first not lose them, and I thought that he played smart football, and sometimes to a fault. We’ll look for him to maybe take a few more chances this year with the football. He’s got the arm to do it. He’s got the receivers to throw it to.
The good news is Stafford has one of the NFL's best big-play threats in Calvin Johnson, though the wide receiver needs to stay healthy after missing five total games the last two years. Yet even in an injury-marred season, Megatron still had 1,077 yards and eight touchdowns.
Here's a look at the Lions' 2015 schedule as well as analysis of the matchups and key games that will define where the team goes.
| 2015 Detroit Lions Regular-Season Schedule | ||||
| 1 | Sept. 13 | at San Diego Chargers | 4:05 p.m. | Fox |
| 2 | Sept. 20 | at Minnesota Vikings | 1 p.m. | Fox |
| 3 | Sept. 27 | vs. Denver Broncos | 8:30 p.m. | NBC |
| 4 | Oct. 5 | at Seattle Seahawks | 8:30 p.m. | ESPN |
| 5 | Oct. 11 | vs. Arizona Cardinals | 4:05 p.m. | Fox |
| 6 | Oct. 18 | vs. Chicago Bears | 1 p.m. | Fox |
| 7 | Oct. 25 | vs. Minnesota Vikings | 1 p.m. | Fox |
| 8 | Nov. 1 | at Kansas City (in London) | 9:30 a.m. | Fox |
| 9 | Bye | |||
| 10 | Nov. 15 | at Green Bay Packers | 1 p.m. | Fox |
| 11 | Nov. 22 | vs. Oakland Raiders | 1 p.m. | CBS |
| 12 | Nov. 26 | vs. Philadelphia Eagles | 12:30 p.m. | Fox |
| 13 | Dec. 3 | vs. Green Bay Packers | 8:25 p.m. | CBS/NFLN |
| 14 | Dec. 13 | at St. Louis Rams | 1 p.m. | Fox |
| 15 | Dec. 21 | at New Orleans Saints | 8:30 p.m. | ESPN |
| 16 | Dec. 27 | vs. San Francisco 49ers | 1 p.m. | Fox |
| 17 | Jan. 3 | at Chicago Bears | 1 p.m. | Fox |
| Source: NFL.com | ||||
The NFC North is a division that starts with the Green Bay Packers—then everyone else is fighting for second place. The Packers were a miracle comeback by the Seattle Seahawks away from playing in the Super Bowl and bring back virtually every major piece from the team, including Aaron Rodgers and arguably the NFL's best wide receiver duo in Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb.
After the Packers, the expectations in this division are not high. Detroit figures to take a significant step back from its 11-win campaign, though Jason Taylor of ProFootballTalk on NBC Sports Network still believes this is the second-best team in the NFC North:
PFTonNBCSN @PFT_Live"#Lions are still second-best in the NFC North." - @JasonTaylor
That's not a huge leap because the Chicago Bears are rebuilding most of their roster, particularly the defense, though hiring Vic Fangio as defensive coordinator has the potential to be one of the best moves of any team in the offseason.
The Minnesota Vikings are the wild card in the division. They won seven games last year without Adrian Peterson for 15 of them and with a rookie quarterback in Teddy Bridgewater who had no help from his left tackle or playmakers on the outside. Bridgewater looks like a future star if the front office can get him a quality wide receiver.
Looking away from the division, Detroit will be playing the NFC West and AFC West. The NFC West is stacked with arguably the league's best team (Seattle), another that won 11 games despite losing two quarterbacks (Arizona Cardinals), a St. Louis Rams team loaded with defensive line talent and a San Francisco 49ers team still boasting quality talent on both sides of the ball.
The AFC West isn't as imposing, though the Denver Broncos figure to be a playoff contender again and San Diego should be better if the front office can find anyone to block for Philip Rivers. The Kansas City Chiefs are a solid team capable of winning eight or nine games. The Oakland Raiders are moving in the right direction but aren't ready to compete for anything.
It's a difficult schedule for the Lions because of where they are as a franchise and the quality of opponents. You can't judge how teams finished last year when analyzing this season because there are roster turnover and player development.
Pivotal Matchups
If the Lions want to be taken seriously as a contender in the NFC North, a win over Green Bay would be nice. A better way of phrasing that would be a win over Green Bay in Lambeau would be nice since it doesn't happen often.
In fact, after Detroit's loss to Green Bay in Week 17, the Lions' losing streak at Lambeau Field goes back to 1991. You're not going to win a division title being unable to defeat a rival on its home turf. That's the litmus-test game for the Lions if they want to prove contending in 2015 is still a reality.
The game against Seattle immediately jumps out for reasons that have nothing to do with the outcome. The Seahawks are the superior team and should win, but the opportunity to see Johnson lined up against Richard Sherman is hard to pass up.
Given the way Sherman often remains stationary in Seattle's defensive alignment, a matchup with Johnson won't happen on all of Detroit's offensive plays. It will be a tremendous battle when it does happen, especially given the way Stafford loves to chuck the ball up to let Megatron make a play.
Since the assumption is Green Bay runs away with the division, that leaves the Lions fighting for one of the two wild-card spots. That makes games against other wild-card contenders like St. Louis, New Orleans, San Francisco and Philadelphia stand out as season-changing battles.
Looking at things right now, Detroit would rank behind each of those four teams on my hypothetical power rankings, but the separation between them wouldn't be significant. The Lions would be in the 15-18 range with the others in the 10-15 area.
To make the playoffs as a non-division winner, you have to beat the teams fighting for a wild-card spot. The interesting part of the Lions' success last year is a lot of wins came against fringe playoff teams like the Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints and Miami Dolphins.
The only reason Atlanta and New Orleans were in playoff contention last year is because the NFC South was terrible. Against playoff teams last year, Detroit went 1-4, with the lone win coming in Week 3 against Green Bay. It was 0-4 against playoff teams after the season's first month.
This year's schedule doesn't appear to feature as many "winnable" games, so the Lions have to upgrade their performance if they hope to make the playoffs in back-to-back seasons.
