Lions continue to be embarrassingly overlooked with latest PFF ranking

The Lions' offseason is essentially over, barring a Za'Darius Smith reunion, and despite praise from Lions fans, the national media is not pleased with the Lions' offseason.

I want to start by saying offseason grades do not matter at all. The Chicago Bears have been awarded the best offseason in football for the past three seasons, and have yet to produce a .500 season following those offseasons.

The Lions continue to receive bad grades every offseason and still improve, proving that the Lions front office knows what they need to do, despite the national media disagreeing.

The Lions rank the 11th best offseason in the NFC

PFF graded every team's offseason following the aftermath of the NFL Draft, and the Lions found themselves lower than expected. The Lions received a B-minus grade from PFF based on their offseason.

This B-minus grade was the 11th best in the NFC, only standing above the Saints, Cowboys, Packers, Falcons, and 49ers. The Lions' division rivals in Chicago and Minnesota received A-plus and B-plus grades, respectively.

PFF listed essentially three reasons as to why the Lions are receiving a low grade this offseason.

First is the loss of both coordinators, Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn. Due to Dan Campbell not calling plays for Detroit, the national media has pinned the Lions' success all on these two coordinators, making losing them seem like the end of the world.

Read more: Lions' conference clash with Eagles named a must-watch game (if they're healthy)

New Lions' coordinators John Morton and Kelvin Sheppard will have a task on their hands to live up to their predecessors at those positions, but what is often overlooked is the Lions' on-field talent. At the end of the day, the players play the games, and regardless of coordinators, the Lions have one of the best rosters in the entire league.

The next reason listed by PFF is losing Kevin Zeitler and replacing him with a rookie, Tate Ratledge, or a second-year Christian Mahogany. A huge reason for this concern is that Zeitler was a PFF darling last season, earning an 86.5 overall grade, good for the fifth-best among all NFL guards.

I agree, it is going to be difficult for the Lions to overcome losing such an impactful guard, but they have multiple shots to get this right. Ratledge, Mahogany, and Frazier are all young guards and at least one of them is likely to end up as a starter for the Lions.

Finally, the real reason why the Lions' offseason is ranked so low was their failure to land another edge rusher opposite of Aidan Hutchinson. The Lions have decided they are rolling with Marcus Davenport, Josh Paschal, Al-Quadin Muhammed, and Ahmed Hassanein as their edge rush rotation.

Of course, there is still a slight chance of Za'Darius Smith returning to Detroit as he is still a free agent, but that becomes increasingly doubtful by the day. I agree this is a definite concern for the Lions, but Detroit's pass rush was flawless with Hutchinson and these guys last year, leading up to the injury.

Overall, I understand some of the concerns the national media have with the Lions, but they continue to overlook this roster as a whole. At absolute worst, this roster is top-five in the NFL and regardless of coordinators, right guard, or secondary edge rusher, they are Super Bowl threats.

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