NFL analyst proclaims Lions will be just as good as ever without Ben Johnson

Reader, we've made it. After months and months of a miserable offseason, we've finally made it: people are starting to get back on the Detroit Lions' bandwagon.

2025 was almost a lost cause. Between losing both Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn, how free agency went, and those ... curious? ... draft picks, it started to feel like maybe the Lions didn't have it anymore. And really, it only felt like that because every single person on the internet was explicitly saying that the Lions didn't have it anymore.

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But that was then. Today's a new day – a day when The Athletic publishes a big list of Over/Unders and then explains which way they're leaning. Buried halfway down is a surprisingly-optimistic Lions take. It's real, it's beautiful, and it hits so hard.

At least someone out there still believes in the Lions this season

Detroit Lions over 10.5 (+110)
"The Lions won 15 games last season and apparently people are nervous because Dan Campbell lost both of his coordinators and his Pro Bowl center. The last team to hit that sad trifecta … won the Super Bowl last year. Aidan Hutchinson is back from his broken leg and the Lions get a nice bump from the schedule, as they face five teams coming off “Monday Night Football” games. This is a big year for the Lions, as all the big contracts are starting to add up and the inevitable squeeze comes next offseason. The Lions know this and are not scared. Of anything. They were the only team that plays the Eagles this season that didn’t vote to ban the Tush Push. They are also the team with the fifth-best Super Bowl odds at 10-1, and I like the value."

That's how you open a 200-word analytical blurb – you can almost see the snark coming off it. It gets a little more nervy afterwards, but let's not focus too much on the semantics. A *strong* 11-win season prediction, in The Athletic, is the perfect way to go into one of the last weekends without some sort of real football. The days are long, the breeze is warm, and the Lions are going to win 11 games this season, probably. Maybe the offseason isn't so bad after all.

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