If you’ve been around Detroit Lions training camp already this summer, you know it’s a make or break season for the Motor City’s NFL team. The NFC North runs through the Green Bay Packers, and both the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings have the potential to be 10 win teams again.
A year after Coach Jim Schwartz and GM Martin Mayhew signed contract extensions, they find themselves on the hot seat. The entire Detroit Lions regime has their jobs on the line. That’s what winning four games will do to you. Especially a year after making the playoffs for the first time since 1999.
Former Indianapolis Colts GM and current ESPN analyst Bill Polian doesn’t think they’re on the hot seat though.
“They’ve had a plan, and they’re following it. First of all, it’s an extremely talented team in all the places that count. I mean, the defensive front is immensely talented. Reggie Bush adds a dimension to the passing game that they haven’t had before,” Polian.
“Stafford has all the talent and the get up and go and the moxie you need to be a good quarterback. They make no bones about the fact that they need better production from the tight end position, and they need to stay healthy at receiver opposite Calvin. But they do have the best receiver in the National Football League, and that means a lot.” Polian
Polian summarized the Detroit Lions situation:
“if they can stay healthy, they’ll have a playoff shot in a very, very difficult division. Everybody talks about the NFC West being a tough division, and it is. But I think the Central is as tough because they have really good teams and teams that, like Chicago and the Detroit Lions, are teams that, well, Chicago was a 10 win team last year, and Detroit has all the capacity to be that. So it’s a tough division.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, a Fox Sports affiliate. He is also an analyst for 95.7 The Fan, and writes on Chicago sports media for Chicago Now. President Obama follows his Twitter account (@PaulMBanks)