The expectations for the Lions have changed a lot since the start of the 2023 season.
They went into that year with playoff hopes and ended it by blowing a lead in the second half of the NFC Championship Game. Making it that far left some predicting a Super Bowl title last season, but a 15-win regular season went up in smoke when they lost 45-31 to the Commanders in their first playoff outing.
Running back David Montgomery said that the Lions now face the need to prove they can get over the hump that separates contenders from champions.
“Everybody’s tired of being close,” Montgomery said, via Eric Woodyard of ESPN.com. “It’s cool to be close at first, but you don’t want to get comfortable with being close all the time. That’s not what you want to be known for, especially when you know you’ve got the guys, you’ve got on this team. You want to finish it, so this is the year for us. The year of the reckoning and the year that we choose that we need to finish.”
The Lions aren’t the only team in the kind of situation that Montgomery describes as training camps get underway. The Bills and Ravens have also been knocking on the door without getting through it in recent seasons and their bids to change that will join Detroit’s as leading storylines for the 2025 season.
