Detroit Lions

The Browns have added an offensive lineman and the Lions may need to find a different starter at center for their season finale.

Per NFL Media, Cleveland is signing Kingsley Eguakun off of Detroit’s practice squad.

Eguakun had started the last two games at center for the Lions with Graham Glasgow still dealing with the effects of a knee injury.

Eguakun, however, struggled in last week’s Christmas Day loss to the Vikings, with botched snaps and a critical false start.

Having entered the league as an undrafted free agent in 2024, Eguakun has appeared in four games for Detroit — all this season.

The Browns will finish their 2025 campaign against the Bengals on Sunday.

The Lions had new offensive and defensive coordinators this season, and it seems likely that there will be another move on the offensive side after head coach Dan Campbell took over play-calling responsibilities from John Morton midway through the year.

On Tuesday, Campbell shared some thoughts about how defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard has fared in his first year on the job. The Lions have slipped from seventh to 23rd in points allowed, but are 18th in yards allowed after finishing 20th under Aaron Glenn in 2024.

“I like Shep,” Campbell said on 97.1 The Ticket, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “Shep has really grown this year. I think with any first-time coordinator, first-time coach, you go through a lot and you learn along the way. You make adjustments, you find things that you believe in, you throw other things to the side that don’t fit you. You find ways to adjust and it’s just part of the process. And I think Shep’s done a damn good job. There’s always going to be things that you learn from this job, but I like Shep.”

Campbell said he is “not about to start going through what I’m going to do here or there” with one game still to play and said he has spent the most time thinking about his own performance because he feels he is “the one who’s not done a good enough job here.” Missing the playoffs is sure to lead to some changes in Detroit, however, and word on what direction they’ll go should come shortly after Sunday’s game against the Bears.

Ryan Kennedy is a Lions fans. The Ravens are currently Ryan Kennedy fans.

The man who provoked Steelers receiver DK Metcalf to approach the stands, grab his shirt, yank him down, and throw a hand/fist toward his face (possibly grazing it) has potentially derailed Pittsburgh’s season, opening the door for Baltimore to swipe the AFC North.

Obviously, Metcalf should have restrained himself. Even more obviously, the Steelers should have had someone/anyone in place to intervene before Metcalf got to Kennedy. The team has no one to blame but itself for failing to stop Metcalf from approaching, and then initiating contact with, an opposing fan.

Metcalf’s absence was evident on Sunday in Cleveland. The series of plays at the end of the game included three straight passes thrown by quarterback Aaron Rodgers to former Packers teammate Marquez Valdes-Scantling. Two had no chance at all. One would have required the kind of athleticism that Valdes-Scantling wasn’t able to display in the moment. And, each time, Valdes-Scantling was blanketed by Browns cornerback Denzel Ward.

If it had been Metcalf facing single coverage on the right side of the formation, the chances of at least one of those throws connecting would have been significantly higher. And it may not have even come down to that drive, if Metcalf had been available throughout the game. (In the Week 5 game against Cleveland, Metcalf had four catches for 95 yards and a touchdown.)

Metcalf will serve the second leg of his two-game suspension on Sunday night, against the Ravens. In Week 14, he had seven catches for 148 yards at Baltimore.

Which receiver on the Pittsburgh roster can come close to replacing that production? On Sunday, Adam Thielen got the start as the Steelers opened with three tight ends on the field. Thielen participated in 86 percent of the snaps. Three other receivers played: Valdes-Scantling (82 percent), Scotty Miller (64 percent), and Roman Wilson (14 percent). (Ben Skowronek played special teams only, and Calvin Austin III was inactive due to a hamstring injury.)

Miller finished with three catches for 25 yards. Valdes-Scantling had three catches for 21 yards, on nine targets. Thielen had two catches for 14 yards. Wilson had zero targets, even though coach Mike Tomlin specifically mentioned Wilson as a candidate to step up in place of Metcalf, with Tomlin’s T-shirt worthy line: “One man’s misfortune is another man’s opportunity.”

Metcalf’s misfortune has damaged Pittsburgh’s opportunity to make the playoffs. Will it be any different this weekend? (Former Rodgers teammate Allen Lazard remains available.)

There’s some good news for Week 18. Rodgers may not be rushing his throws as much in the regular-season finale, given that he won’t be seemingly obsessed with not joining the record books as the quarterback whom Myles Garrett sacked for the single-season record.

Bears wide receiver Luther Burden had a big game in Sunday night’s loss to the 49ers, but the rookie ended the night with a quad injury.

Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that Burden will have tests done on the quad on Monday. The current feeling is that the injury is not a serious one, however.

Burden had eight catches for 138 yards and a touchdown before the injury. The Bears were playing without Rome Odunze and Olamide Zaccheaus while DJ Moore played despite an illness that led to him being downgraded to questionable on Sunday afternoon.

The Bears have already clinched the NFC North and they will be either the No. 2 or No. 3 seed in the conference, so there’s not much reason for the team to risk further injury by playing starters against the Lions next weekend. More information about their plans will likely come in the next few days.

Things have changed dramatically for the Lions and Vikings since last season, when they squared off in Week 18 with identical 14-2 records for the top seed in the NFC.

Over the last four games, the fall of the Lions has been even more dramatic.

Detroit had a record of 7-5 through 12 games. Minnesota, after losing four in a row, had plunged to 4-8. With the Vikings winning four in a row (capped by the Christmas Day win over Detroit), the Lions have gone 1-3.

They’ll now have identical records again entering Week 18 again: 8-8.

And here’s the kicker for the Lions. By virtue of Minnesota’s sweep of the Lions, Detroit is currently in last place in the NFC North. With either a win by the Vikings at home over the Packers or a loss by the Lions at Chicago — or if both games end in ties — the Lions will finish fourth in the division.

Here’s the silver lining. Finishing fourth in the division would give the Lions a last-place schedule for 2026. That would mean games against the Titans, Giants, and Cardinals. Currently, the third-place Vikings would face the the Colts, Commanders, and 49ers.

The Bears and Packers, depending on how they finish, will play some combination of the Jaguars/Texans, Eagles/Cowboys, and Seahawks/Rams.

The other 14 games are unrelated to division finish. But those three games could make a difference. And the Lions currently have the inside track to getting the primary edge that comes from finishing dead last in their division.

Only 23 months ago, the Lions built — and blew — a 17-point lead in the second half of the NFC Championship at San Francisco. After the game, coach Dan Campbell provided a blunt assessment of the situation.

“I told those guys, this may have been our only shot,” Campbell said at the time. “Do I think that? No. Do I believe that? No. However, I know how hard it is to get here. I’m well aware. And it’s gonna be twice as hard to get back to this point next year than it was this year. That’s the reality.”

Since then, the reality is that a magical 15-2 season ended in an upset loss to the Commanders in the divisional round. This year, the losses have quadrupled, leaving the Lions at 8-8 with one game to play, next weekend against the Bears at Soldier Field.

Can the Lions come back? Absolutely. But next year’s team will be three years removed from the one that was on the brink of the franchise’s first Super Bowl. Windows can open quickly, and they can close even faster.

Even now, 47 of the players from 2023 are gone. The coaching staff has undergone an overhaul, with offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, and multiple other assistants moving on. By next year, who knows how different the Lions will look?

So, yes, it was their only shot. While plenty of players from 2023 will be back for 2026, the team will be dramatically different. Something will need to be different — and significantly better — to get the Lions back to where they were in January 2024.

As promised, Lions fan Ryan Kennedy met with reporters on Friday regarding Sunday’s incident with Steelers DK Metcalf at Ford Field. As expected, the press conference was a precursor to a likely lawsuit.

The full video can be seen here. Kennedy sat between his two lawyers, wearing a suit jacket, a dress shirt, and a Lions hat turned backward. He spoke briefly.

“It is really hard to get me upset, but there’s two things, animal abuse, racism, like, I get hot right away,” Kennedy said. “Like, I can feel with my face. It gets all warm. So I guess I want to be crystal clear about one thing: I didn’t use any racial slurs, no hate speech. I mean, none of that stuff at the game.

“Actually, never — 15 years, season ticker holder for the Lions, I’ve never done that, at all. So, DeKaylin, if you’re watching this man, just — if you could just say that please, like, my family’s getting threats and stuff, it’s not cool. So whether you said that or not, I’m sure you didn’t want that to happen to the family. Even if you did, like, I forgive you, man. That’s all I got. Go Lions.”

Kennedy seemed agitated and, at times, impatient. Near the end of the 13-minute video, as attorney Shawn Head attempted to take questions from reporters who weren’t present but were participating in the press conference online, Kennedy said, “Why am I still here?”

And that ended the event.

At the outset of the press conference, Head spoke first. He characterized the interaction initiated by Metcalf as an “assault.”

“What happened is this,” Head said. “A professional athlete approached the stands, reached into the stands, grabbed the spectator by his shirt, pulled him downwards, and struck him.”

There has been no claim that the assault physically injured Kennedy. The harm allegedly came from the subsequent effort to justify Metcalf’s behavior.

“After that assault, false accusations of racism and racial slurs were made publicly,” Head said. “As a result, Ryan Kennedy and his family have received threats, they’ve been harassed, and his business has been damaged. His business has received negative online reviews and negative comments based on those false accusations of racist statements.

“Being falsely branded as a racist is one of the most damaging accusations that a private citizen can endure. It’s dangerous, and it causes very real consequences and very real damage.”

And “very real damage” is what usually triggers a very real lawsuit.

Head added that the lawyers have reached out to Metcalf’s representatives, with a request that the record be corrected as to the things said, and not said, by Kennedy. Head explained that, as of Friday morning, the lawyers had received no response.

While that wouldn’t undo the damage already done, silence bolsters the eventual lawsuit, giving Kennedy’s lawyers the ability to argue that they tried, repeatedly, to get Metcalf to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Above all else, it’s clear that a lawsuit is coming — unless Kennedy decides to put the pin back in the grenade.

“The goal here is accountability and to correct the record,” Head said. “Again, the false accusations of racial statements or racial slurs being used causes real damage, and that needs to be corrected. Mr. Kennedy obviously has the ability to correct that record, but so does everybody else who heard what was actually said. And so does Mr. Metcalf. He can come out and tell the truth and indicate that he never heard any racial slur uttered by Mr. Kennedy.”

Head was asked whether a lawsuit has been filed.

“Right now, we’re evaluating all of our options, of course, and we’re gonna make sure that we use any legal remedies available to help protect Ryan Kennedy and his family,” Head said. “And again, we’re not gonna litigate this in the media. We’re here today to set the record straight.”

From Kennedy’s perspective, the record is as straight as it can be. The question is whether Metcalf and/or those who pushed his version to multiple media outlets (and those media outlets) will do the same.

Either way, expect a lawsuit against Metcalf and possibly others. If Metcalf won’t say Kennedy didn’t say what he allegedly said, the only alternative is to get a judge and/or a jury to say it.

Lions head coach Dan Campbell said he’ll be looking at everything in the organization as he evaluates what went wrong this season and how to turn things around in 2026.

Campbell said after the Lions were eliminated from playoff contention in Minnesota that he’s not happy with where things are and it needs to get better.

“I’m gonna be looking at a lot of things because I do not like being home for the playoffs and I know our guys don’t either,” Campbell said. “Whenever you lose it takes a village. Everybody’s involved, including myself. I’m always going to look at myself first.”

Campbell said he and Lions General Manager Brad Holmes will be spending a lot of time evaluating the roster.

“Brad and I will have a lot of decisions to make, a lot of things to look at,” Campbell said. “How do we improve? Because we need to improve.”

After winning the No. 1 seed in the NFC last season, the Lions have been one of the NFL’s most disappointing teams this year. Campbell doesn’t like it, and he knows it has to be an offseason of change.

The Vikings saw three net passing yards come sailing in, on Christmas Day in the afternoon.

The fact that they still won the game is stunning. And historic.

Via Josh Dubow of the Associated Press, Minnesota’s 23-10 nail-in-the-coffin to Detroit’s playoff hopes was only the fifth time in the Super Bowl era that a team won a game by 10 or more points with fewer than 10 net passing yards. It hadn’t happened in 47 years.

The Packers beat the Chargers, 24-3, in 1978 with nine net passing yards. The Packers beat the Rams, 17-6, in 1974 with minus-one net passing yards. The Cardinals beat the Falcons, 32-10, in 1973 with nine net passing yards. And the Lions beats the 49ers, 26-14, in 1969 with one net passing yard.

Quarterback Max Brosmer completed nine of 16 passes for 51 yards for the Vikings. Brosmer was sacked seven times, losing 48 yards.

Neither Brosmer nor the rest of the Minnesota offense coughed up the ball. The Minnesota defense forced six turnovers — including five from quarterback Jared Goff.

The Vikings deserve plenty of credit for playing to win despite being eliminated from playoff contention 11 days ago. After starting 4-8, they’ve now won four in a row.

And the Lions deserve plenty of blame for failing to deliver a win when they needed it most. Especially when the Minnesota passing game was virtually nonexistent.

With the Lions losing on Christmas Day in Minnesota, the NFC playoff field is nearly set.

The NFC’s postseason qualifiers are the Seahawks, Bears, Eagles, Rams, 49ers, Packers, and the eventual winner of the NFC South.

It will be the Panthers or the Buccaneers winning that division, and hosting a wild-card game as the No. 4 seed against the No. 5 seed.

As to the rest of the seeding, it’s all TBD. Which gives the last two weekends some extra sizzle — possibly with the No. 1 seed coming down to the Week 18 game between the Seahawks and the 49ers.

Three NFC teams that didn’t make it last year are in for 2025: Bears, Seahawks, and 49ers. The number will increase to four if the Panthers take the NFC South from the Bucs, who have won it every year since 2021.

Bounced from the 2024 field are the Lions, Vikings, and Commanders. The failure of the Lions to make it is stunning; they were 15-2 last year. They’re 8-8 through sixteen games in 2025.