One reporter needed one word to perfectly describe the Lions' offseason

For the Detroit Lions, their offseason began on January 19th, a day after a soul-crushing 45-31 loss in the Divisional Round to the Washington Commanders.

Ever since then, the team has faced the task of how to get prepared for the 2025-2026 season - just like every other team in the league. Ben Arthur of Fox Sports recently described each team's efforts in the offseason with a single word, and the one that he felt epitomized the Lions over the last several months is "Ambitious".

From the article, he goes on to say this:

The Lions will get star edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson, who missed 12 games after breaking his leg last season, back this year. They also added a strong replacement for cornerback Carlton Davis III in veteran D.J. Reed. But they lost Pro Bowl center Frank Ragnow (retirement) and star coordinators Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn, who accepted head coach jobs with the Bears and Jets, respectively. Those are big holes to grapple with as the Lions still hope to be in contention for a Super Bowl.

Let's unpack the offseason to date just a bit more, though. He's right in that the loss of both coordinators left an immediate void, with big shoes to fill on both sides of the ball.

Johnson had been widely regarded as a top head coaching prospect for both of the previous offseasons, but twice elected to come back to the Lions after turning down the Panthers in 2023 and the Commanders in 2024. For Glenn, while his defenses struggled, they showed consistent and continual improvement year over year.

This last season, the defensive unit sat among the best in the league before myriad injuries took their toll in the back half of the schedule.

But Johnson and Glenn weren't the only coaches to depart. Tanner Engstrand, the former TE Coach/ Passing Game Coordinator and long thought to be the heir apparent to Johnson, did indeed pick up an OC spot - under Glenn in New York. Terrell Williams, who spent a year with the Lions as their Defensive Run Game Coordinator & Defensive Line Coach, got poached by the Patriots as their DC.

To fill those spots, Detroit's GM Brad Holmes & HC Dan Campbell both promoted from within and scouted other staff from around the league. To fill the vacant OC spot, the Lions turned to a familiar face - John Morton, who spent the 2022 season with the Lions as the Senior Offensive Assistant. He came back to Detroit after two seasons as Passing Game Coordinator in Denver.

Meanwhile, Engstrand's duties were split up, with Tyler Roehl, formerly an Asst. HC for Iowa State, taking on the Tight Ends coaching duties. The Passing Game Coordinator spot went to David Shaw, HC for Stanford for over a decade and most recently a Sr. Personnel Exec for Denver.

On the defensive side of the ball, Kelvin Sheppard, formerly the team's LB coach, earned the honor of taking on the DC role. In his place, the Lions chose Shaun Dion Hamilton to step up from Asst. LB Coach to fully take over. For the Def. Run Game Coord./ DL role, Kacy Rodgers was brought over from the Buccaneers, where he performed those same duties from 2022-2024.

When it comes to the players, Ben Arthur actually understated things in his blurb. Aidan Hutchinson won't be the only player coming back from rehabbing injuries. Last year saw more than twenty defensive players go down over the course of the season, with five starters out for the playoffs.

Of perhaps the most concern beyond Hutchinson is DT Alim McNeill, who suffered a torn ACL and isn't projected to be back on the field until mid-season at the earliest.

In Week 3 last year against the Cardinals, both LB Derrick Barnes and EDGE Marcus Davenport ended their seasons due to injuries. Both have since been re-signed to the team, on back-to-back days. Barnes received a 3 year deal, while Davenport was brought back for one more year.

Meanwhile, CB Carlton Davis left for the Patriots, replaced by CB D.J. Reed - a key signing by Holmes to help out the secondary. For the DL, though, the elephant in the room is the fact that EDGE Za'Darius Smith, acquired via mid-season trade from the Browns last year, remains unsigned by the team.

On that front, though, Smith certainly seems as if he wants to come back - but both sides still have to agree on a new deal.

While the offense was a lot healthier over the course of the season, Frank Ragnow's recent retirement forces the team to make some critical decisions in regard to the interior line. Graham Glasgow has played the last few seasons with the Lions at Guard, but has experience switching between that role and Center.

As an alternative, last year's 6th round draft pick, Christian Mahogany, could end up taking over snapping duties. And finally, this year's 2nd rounder, Tate Ratledge, was also spotted getting reps at Center at OTAs.

New coaches. Injuries. Retirements. Contracts. With all those going on and more, the organization is trying its level best to keep the championship window open as long as possible, and capitalize on the level of talent within the program.

"Ambitious" may just be the right word, but while some may take it as the team biting off more than it can chew...well, it's a lot harder to achieve a goal if you never set one to begin with. The Lions certainly have their sights set on hoisting the Lombardi Trophy come next February. Now they just have to go out and get the job done - a worthy ambition if ever there was one.