Through five games, the Detroit Lions are 3-2. With a stuttering offense akin to an engine during a Michigan winter, and a defense more uneven than Chris Ilitch’s commitment to the city of Detroit, where does this team go from here?
Monday’s reactions to the Lions victory over the Arizona Cardinals, 45-21, seemed to track for a portion of the fan base that had already grabbed their pitchforks. The slow start had them marching due west to continue the call for Kelvin Sheppard after Jacoby Brissett
marched 73 yards in 14 plays for a touchdown. A second straight three-and-out for the offense… and then a third one to cap off Detroit’s performance in the first quarter had me wondering if any of us were getting out of this alive. A bye week to stew over a performance like this would have been enough for me to put in my two weeks at Pride of Detroit.
But, eventually, that engine turned over, and the offense started humming more reliably than your father’s favorite automobile. An entire quarter of nothing—less than nothing—against the Cardinals led to 31 unanswered points on five consecutive drives. In the meantime, the defense forced five straight three-and-outs of their own from Arizona. Prior to Sunday, the Lions defense had only forced a total of five three-and-outs—tied for the fewest with Kansas City and Jacksonville. Detroit hadn’t played such perfectly complementary football since who knows how long.
Pay Sam LaPorta
Sam LaPorta needs to get paid, so Brad Holmes and all the cap people might find themselves on a much more working vacation this week than they had planned. LaPorta, henceforth known as the guy who will not have the health of his back questioned after Mack Wilson launched into him like a T-1000, is the kind of talent Detroit so desperately missed down the stretch last season. It’s ultra clear how important he is to this offense. At this point, his contributions this season have been more palpable than any other offensive playmaker not named Jahmyr Gibbs.
He’s first in contested catch rate (83.3%) among pass catchers with at least two contested targets, and second in yards after catch per reception (5.3) of anyone with more than 17 targets through five weeks. He’s second in yards per reception (11.7) behind only Jameson Williams (15.3) for any receiver with at least 10 catches. Among the four key playmakers for Detroit, LaPorta is very clearly the second-best option behind a player who just broke Barry Sanders’ NFL record for touchdowns scored by a player before turning 25.
Pay him; pay that man his money.
The Curious Case of Amon-Ra St. Brown
St. Brown’s rather pedestrian start to the 2026 season is proof the receiver is human. In a game where he fumbled the ball twice—lucky enough to have special teams ace Tay Martin and Tate Ratledge recover both of them—and dropped at least one pass we’ve seen him catch routinely, the Lions scored 45 points in less than three quarters of football. He’s one of the best receivers in football, off to a bit of a slow start by his standards, but think of what that means for this Lions offense. It’s truly too talented to accept mediocrity, as suggested by Dan Campbell, and it’s too multifaceted to fail.
Keith Abney? The fifth-round rookie cornerback?
Campbell and Sheppard both talked about shuffling the personnel ahead of their Week 5 matchup with Arizona, but who knew it meant taking a fifth-round rookie pegged to be a slot cornerback and playing him at deep safety?Abney was one of the most valuable selections in the entire 2026 NFL Draft according to consensus boards, but with only 25 defensive snaps in the slot Week 1, and some inactive designations sprinkled in between here and now, that’s a pretty bold move to have him play 59 of the team’s 73 snaps on defense.
“I thought he was solid,” Campbell said about Abney’s performance on Sunday. “The things that popped up for him were the ‘hey, I haven’t done this before,’ which is what you want for a rookie […] I thought he played a good game, you know? First start—first NFL start—at safety, never played safety. He’s banked some reps for us, you know, we’ve been cross-training him. But man, there’s meat on the bone there, and he’s got room to grow, and we feel like he can continue to grow and get better.”
Can you feel that? Brian Branch returning just in time to pair with Abney, who the Lions see as a young player with potential to grow and improve? Do you know what that is? It’s the Lions secondary slowly putting itself back together because contrary to popular belief, Humpty Dumpty can’t hurt you. Lots of things like quicksand and black holes and Humpty Dumpty end up playing a much lesser role in your life than you would have anticipated at age 9.
You’re taking Jahmyr Gibbs for granted
You just are. Maybe you think you’re appreciating what Gibbs is doing week in and week out, but you’re not. Does the name Kerryon Johnson mean anything to you? Years, plural—five of them, to be exact—the Lions went without a single player rushing for 100 yards, and now you have Gibbs breaking records each and every week. Gibbs is so good—“How good is he?”—Gibbs is so good each week, we’re highlighting the performances of other players on offense before Gibbs because the old adage is true, you save the best for last. Look at our website: not a single writer chose to use an image of Gibbs as their featured image for their article. Hell, I’m guilty of it myself by starting this article talking about Sam LaPorta, mostly so his day doesn’t pale in comparison to a guy who gained 207 all-purpose yards and scored two touchdowns.
And another thing, Jared Goff is having a darn good season. Any time you can start your season with 12 touchdowns to 0 interceptions, you’re doing great. He’s certainly doing a lot more than “for sure not helping” out the offense, but there’s very clearly a rank and file for MVP candidates on this offense—and Gibbs is at the head of the table. It’s not a slight to Goff, it’s just so boring and tired and frankly uninspiring to say that the QB with the best numbers on a team headed for the playoffs should be the first choice for the league’s most valuable player. Watch a Lions game and tell me which player this offense couldn’t bear to be without. Hint: it’s the one everyone keeps handwringing over his usage for fear his body can’t withstand the punishment of a 17-game NFL season.
So where are the Lions headed from here?
A win over the Cardinals, no matter how convincing it was, wasn’t going to do too much for the fans who had already made up their minds on the defense. And with the slow start on offense, there’s another talking point for those skeptical of the Lions chances to be a true contender.
But this team, despite a slightly disappointing 3-2 start, is getting reinforcements on the other side of their early-season bye. Branch, if healthy, is a bona fide difference maker. Cade Mays will be an upgrade at the center position, not only raising the ceiling of the offensive line, but also further fortifying the depth should they need to call on Juice Scruggs in the future. They’re not the brand new additions fans have called for after the first four games, especially on the defensive side of the ball, but that won’t make them any less impactful.
The lesson to be learned from this rollercoaster ride to start the season is this league is full of weird. The Los Angeles Rams have a worse record than the Cleveland Browns, Las Vegas Raiders, and New York Giants through five weeks. The transitive property does not compute in the NFL. It’s a long season, but Lions are still headed for the playoffs in a mucked up NFC.
