Analyst Believes Lions Super Bowl Window Never Opened

The Detroit Lions underachieved in 2025, plain and simple.

Expectations within the building were high coming off a 15-2 season, and the way that year ended left many motivated to get back to the postseason in 2025. However, due to a myriad number of issues such as a tough schedule, less than stellar offensive line play and defensive injuries, the team will miss the postseason for the first time since 2022.

As the Lions head back to the drawing board, analysts have offered their opinions on what went wrong in Motown in 2025. Fox Sports 1's Nick Wright contended that he didn't believe in the team's overall chances of ultimately climbing the proverbial mountain and winning the Super Bowl.

“I don’t know that the Lions’ Super Bowl window was ever actually open," Wright said. "As good as Dan Campbell’s been, there’s been one season where they’ve won a playoff game since he’s been there. They won two, and then they blew a lead in the NFC Championship game."

Part of the team's struggles to remain one of the best lies with the fact that they lost both their offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator, Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn, to other head coaching opportunities.

Johnson has been a revelation for the Chicago Bears, as he has the team in position to potentially win the NFC North if they finish with wins over San Francisco this week and the Lions to end the regular season or get help from Baltimore or Minnesota against Green Bay.

Reflecting on the Lions' struggles, Wright noted that the team's culture helped get them back into a competitive space. However, they lacked the schematic advantages that Johnson and Glenn provided, as current coordinators John Morton and Kelvin Sheppard couldn't get them back to that level of performance.

"I have not ever believed in the Lions quite as much as I think Vegas has and other media has. I think the loss of Ben Johnson is real," Wright said. "I think the loss of Aaron Glenn, it might be true that Aaron Glenn is not a successful head coach. One year is too early to judge, but it hasn’t been a great year. But it doesn’t mean that he wasn’t a super valuable defensive coordinator. I think building culture and establishing a culture is wildly important to get a team from the dregs to competitive and contending. But once you’re contending and competitive, the culture can operate on its own for some teams. What you need are schematic edges, and those seemed to go out the window once he lost his coordinators.”