Before Dan Campbell arrived in Detroit, a 9-8 record was considered a great season for the Lions. But Campbell has raised expectations significantly, which means this year’s 9-8 finish is a disappointment.
Still, Campbell thinks his team is generally on the right track, even as he prepares to make some minor changes in 2026.
“I still believe the nucleus of this team is right, but we’ve got to make a few changes,” Campbell said. “We’ve got to work through some things to get the best version of ourselves.”
Campbell said that by beating the NFC North champion Bears in Chicago on Sunday, the Lions showed what kind of team they’re capable of being.
“Good win by the guys. Proud of them. That’s the way to finish. I didn’t expect anything different out of them, just knowing the guys we have,” Campbell said. “Our guys fought.”
Now Campbell needs to figure out how to get those guys to fight more consistently than they did in 2025.
Lions Clips
The Bears entered today’s game needing only to win to become the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs. The Lions entered today’s game having already been mathematically eliminated. But the Lions played like they had pride to play for, and pulled off an upset.
Detroit won 19-16 on a 42-yard field goal from Jake Bates as time expired.
The Lions finish the season in last place in the NFC North, but with a respectable 9-8 record. The Bears finish 11-6 and will have to hope the Eagles lose to the Commanders, which would deliver Chicago the No. 2 seed.
Lions quarterback Jared Goff had a big game, completing 27 of 42 passes for 331 yards, and Amon-Ra St. Brown was his favorite receiver, with 11 catches for 139 yards. The Lions jumped out to a 16-0 lead and it looked like they would dominate.
But the Bears, as they so often have this season, came roaring back, with Caleb Williams throwing two touchdown passes and two two-point conversions to tie the score 16-16.
In the end, however, the Lions were able to drive into field goal range in the closing moments of the fourth quarter, and kick that game winner. The Lions are a last-place team, but they end the season with something that gives them confidence going into the offseason. And the Bears need to shake off a disappointing loss as they head toward the playoffs.
The Lions are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. The Bears are fighting for the NFC No. 2 seed. But that’s not what it looks like so far today in Chicago.
Detroit has absolutely dominated, taking a 13-0 lead and out-gaining the Bears 202 yards to 30.
With 4:40 left in the second quarter, Lions quarterback Jared Goff has 170 passing yards. Bears quarterback Caleb Williams has 15 passing yards.
There’s still plenty of football to play, and even if the Bears lose they can earn the No. 2 seed if the Eagles also lose. But right now the Bears aren’t looking like a team that’s ready to go on a run in the playoffs.
Bears wide receiver Rome Odunze made it back onto the practice field on Friday.
Odunze has missed the last four games with a foot injury and he was a limited practice participant in his return to action. He is listed as questionable for Chicago’s game against the Lions and said on Friday that he’s hoping to be in the lineup as the team tries to wrap up the No. 2 seed in the NFC.
“Obviously I want to play, but I’m following their plan, so we’ll see where that leads me on Sunday,” Odunze said, via the team’s website. “It’s still up in the air right now. But I was able to go out there today, felt pretty good. I’m locked into what we’re doing this week, so we’ll see.”
Safety Jaquan Brisker missed practice with an illness on Friday and has been listed as questionable. Left tackle Ozzy Trapilo (knee, quad) and cornerback Nick McCloud (illness) are also in the questionable category. Defensive end Joe Tryon-Shoyinka (concussion has been ruled out.
A year ago, the Lions won the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs in Week 18. This year, the Lions are already mathematically eliminated from playoff contention heading into Week 18. Coach Dan Campbell knows that’s not good enough.
Campbell said that the Lions will be fueled this offseason by knowing they fell short, and that they’re going to prove they’re not far off from being championship contenders again.
“Sometimes you’ve got to hit rock bottom before you can work your way back up,” Campbell said. “And relative to where we were at, this is rock bottom. But as bad as it looks, I said this the other day, it’s not as far away as it may appear. We’ve just got to get a few things back in line here. But it does apply to the coaches, and no different than the players, that’s what you look for as a head coach: How do other coaches respond to what we’re going through here?”
Campbell said he thinks failure is good motivation. If so, the Lions will be very motivated in 2026, because they failed to achieve any of their goals in 2025.
The Lions have fallen quickly in 2025, with quadruple the losses they had in 2024. But as the Lions try to finish the season after going 15-2 with a 9-8 record (and not 8-9), first-year defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard said he doesn’t think it’ll be a heavy lift to get back to where they recently were.
“I understand where we’re at with eight losses and out of playoff contention,” Sheppard said Thursday, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “But I’m not going to sit up here and say there needs to be a drastic change and this didn’t work, that didn’t work. There were weeks we played at a high level with the exact same system and there was weeks that we didn’t. And after this game, we’ll go back and look at that in totality and find out the real whys behind that.”
Whatever they find, Sheppard believes it won’t require a major overhaul.
“I don’t see drastic change,” Sheppard said. “What I see and what I’ve learned in my first year on the job of calling defenses is something that me and [head coach] Dan [Campbell] talk about every day. You start off the year . . . I wanted to have top defense in this category, top this, top that, top that. And you get caught in these statistical things that means nothing if you’re not winning football games.
“This league is about adaptability and you can have a system all you want, but it’s whatever dictates that week is necessary to win the football game.”
They didn’t win nearly enough. And the defensive performance reflects it.
As noted by Birkett, the Lions are tied for 22nd in points allowed per game, with 24.8. They’re 18th in total defense and 20th in takeaways. In 2024, the Lions finished in the top 10 in scoring, rushing defense, and takeaways.
The biggest takeaway for the Lions in 2025 is that they weren’t good enough. They have the talent, on both sides of the ball. But it didn’t show up often enough. Win or lose on Sunday at the Bears, the Lions have work to do — drastic or otherwise — to get back to where they were a year ago.
Bears wide receiver Rome Odunze still isn’t back at practice.
Odunze, who has missed four consecutive games with a foot injury, again was listed as a non-participant on Thursday.
Rookie wide receiver Luther Burden III, though, returned to full participation after limited work on Wednesday. Burden injured a quadriceps in last Sunday night’s loss to the 49ers.
Wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus (illness) also was a full participant after he missed the 49ers game.
The Bears added offensive lineman Jonah Jackson (illness) to the practice report as a non-participant on Thursday.
Edge rusher Joe Tryon-Shoyinka (concussion) did not practice a second consecutive day.
Defensive back Nick McCloud (illness) and tackle Ozzy Trapilo (knee, quad) remained limited, but defensive back Josh Blackwell (shoulder) returned to full participation a day after being limited.
The Lions have collapsed from 15-2 in 2024 to 8-8 in 2025. They have one game left. It’s technically meaningless. Quarterback Jared Goff still sees relevance in the Week 18 game at Chicago.
“It’s about respect,” Goff said Wednesday. “Not only respect for yourself, within your own team but respect around the league. We want to go out there and put something good on tape that can gain a little respect back from probably some of the loss of respect we earned this year.”
Whether the operative words is respect or something else, the Lions aren’t the team they were a year ago. They have one last chance to leave an impression on the league before inevitable offseason changes will come.
The first step presumably will be to fix the offense. And that may entail replacing offensive coordinator John Morton, who lost playcalling duties in Week 10, when coach Dan Campbell took over.
Campbell surely would admit that the current offensive approach isn’t sustainable. Campbell needs to run the team, not the offense. And, in hindsight, it was far easier for Campbell to do only that.
Win or lose, Campbell has decisions to make. And the Lions have work to do to get back to where they were in 2024, 2023, and the second half of 2022.
For Goff, there are no decisions to be made in the short term. The goal is to play, and to play to win.
“It’s what I’m paid to do,” Goff said. “I’m the quarterback of this team. I’m paid to play on Sundays and do my job and do it to the best of my abilities. It doesn’t matter what our record is or what the situation may be. That’s my job.”
The job on the last Sunday of the season is to potentially keep the Bears from securing the No. 2 seed in the NFC, and to help the Lions finish on the right side of .500 for the fourth straight season. That’s something they haven’t done since 1969 through 1972.
Nielsen’s new mechanism for measuring out-of-home viewing has helped the NFL, considerably.
All numbers are up in 2025. Including the Christmas games.
Via NFL Media, the Lions-Vikings game set a streaming record, with an average audience of 27.5 million. The early game between the Cowboys and Commanders averaged 19.9 million, creating a two-game numer of 23.7 million.
The captive audience of Christmas Day offset the fact that the games weren’t particularly compelling. And the Netflix production left much to be desired, given the ill-advised decision to interview via Zoom four former players during the back-to-back games.
No one wanted that. No one, except the Netflix exec who thought it was a good idea. Everyone who watched the games had to deal with the distraction to the coverage, including canned questions like, “What does football mean to you?”
It means enough to us to tell Netflix to never do in-game Zoom interviews again.
The wait continues for wide receiver Rome Odunze in Chicago.
Odunze has missed four straight games with a foot injury and he was listed as a non-participant on the first practice report of Week 18. Head coach Ben Johnson said last week that he expects Odunze to help the team again this season, but it may not be until the playoffs are underway.
Rookie wideout Luther Burden was limited by the quad injury he suffered in last Sunday night’s loss to the 49ers. Word on Monday was that Burden avoided a serious injury and it would seem there’s some chance he will be able to play against Detroit this week.
Wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus (illness) was a full participant after missing the 49ers game. Edge rusher Joe Tryon-Shoyinka (concussion) did not practice while defensive back Josh Blackwell (shoulder), defensive back Nick McCloud (illness), and tackle Ozzy Trapilo (knee, quad) were limited participants.
