The Lions are in unfamiliar territory with high external expectations for their 2023 season.
Though the team’s record was 9-8, Detroit ended 2022 on an 8-2 run — including a 20-16 victory over the Packers in Week 18 that prevented the NFC North rival from making the postseason.
Head coach Dan Campbell has said that the proverbial “hype train” for the Lions is a little out of control. But according to quarterback Jared Goff, Campbell has done a good job of keeping things in perspective for the team.
“Yeah, he’s the greatest at it,” Goff said in his Sunday press conference. “Just keeping us where we need to be and the so-called ‘hype train’ is — I don’t know, I think it’s funny to me that like you go 9-8, you don’t make the playoffs and now you’re all of a sudden a favorite and it’s — of course, we’ve got good players, we’ve got good coaches, we’ve got a good team. But we haven’t done anything and we have a lot of work to do.
“Minnesota won 13 games last year, Green Bay has won the division a handful of times the last handful of years, so we’ve got some work to do to put a stamp on who we want to be, and are nowhere near that yet. But we’re on our way.”
The Lions have not made the postseason since 2016 and famously haven’t won a postseason game since 1991. But the club also hasn’t won a division title since 1993, when Detroit was in the pre-realignment NFC Central.
It’s certainly possible this year’s Lions will break a lot of those streaks. But as Goff said, the team has a lot of work to do to get there.