Earlier this offseason, ESPN’s Mike Clay ranked every single roster for the 2026 season, and he had the Detroit Lions fourth overall
—a stark reminder that some outsiders still really like the Lions’ roster despite a turbulent offseason.This week, Clay teamed up with a couple other co-workers—Aaron Schatz and Seth Walder—to re-rank all of the NFL rosters. And to no surprise, the Lions remain one of the best teams in the league, by their measures. Detroit came in sixth in the rankings, behind the Rams,
Eagles, Seahawks, Bills, and Ravens, in that order.
Within each section, the team of writers identified each teams’ biggest strength, weakness, x-factor and a nonstarter to know. It’s hard to disagree with their choices for biggest strength and weakness for the Lions: skill position players and the secondary, respectively.
“Running back Jahmyr Gibbs, WRs Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams and TE Sam LaPorta form one of the league’s best groups of skill players,” Clay wrote.
Clay noted that Detroit’s secondary has talent, but injuries (D.J. Reed, Kerby Joseph, Brian Branch)—combined with Terrion Arnold’s off-field issues and subsequent release—has raised plenty of questions.
“This has the potential to be a very good group, but questions will need to be answered,” Clay wrote.
The article identifies Blake Miller as the x-factor and Christian Izien as the nonstarter to know. You’ll have to click through to see why.
The rest of the NFC North is ranked well below Detroit in ESPN’s list. The Packers are 10th, Bears 17th, and Vikings 22nd.
- If you want an opposing viewpoint, ESPN’s Mina Kimes welcomed Ryan Clark to her podcast, and in a bit of an unconventional style of power ranking — Kimes gives the guest two options for the next best team — the Lions came out… 16th!
- The Athletic put together a pretty detailed and fairly balanced timeline of everything involved in the Terrion Arnold legal case.
- A reminder that you can always share your stories, thoughts, roster predictions, and other musings over on The Feed. Each weekday, I like to feature one of my favorite here in our Notes post. Today, here is Hunt Baker’s thoughtful post on the front office, Terrion Arnold’s situation, and the inevitability of problems out of your control:
- Justin Rogers of Detroit Football Network projected what a Brian Branch extension may look like, even though he admits the team will likely wait to see how he recovers from his Achilles.
- Lions coach Dan Skipper looked like he had one hell of a Fourth of July:
- Good story from Kory Woods from MLive on how Lions safety Thomas Harper isn’t taking time off this summer. He’s grinding to build on a promising 2025 season.
