'Foundation' was the word Tuesday as the Lions reported to Allen Park for the start of offseason workouts. They've spent the last two years laying it. This is the year to build on it.
They're coming off a surge at the end of last season. They've made several upgrades in free agency, with the draft -- and two first-round picks -- still to come. Two seasons after their fourth straight last-place finish, the Lions are favorites in the NFC North. They know it, the NFL knows it.
"Personally, I look forward to it," said star receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. "I love having something to attain, something to reach. It’s just my personality. I think as a team, we have a lot of young guys that we’ve been had that are hungry, that have seen what we did two years ago, only winning three games."
No one on this team has seen more than Taylor Decker, the Lions' longest-tenured player. He made the playoffs as a rookie under Jim Caldwell, endured three seasons under Matt Patricia and survived to see a new day as a leader under Dan Campbell. More than any of his teammates, Decker knows nothing is given in the NFL.
The givens for the Lions, we think, are this: their offense should be back among the NFL's best, fueled by what should be another top-tier offensive line, and their defense should be better than the NFL's worst thanks to an overhauled secondary. But assumptions in April can lead to letdowns in September, October and beyond.
"I don't care what you did last year," Decker said. "I don't care what you did two years ago. But I do think we have the foundation for a good football team. I do think we've added good pieces and good staff. But can we get that to all come together? Can we get that symbiosis of the offense with the defense, the coaching staff, the training staff, the strength staff, can we catch all that?"
St. Brown can catch. He enters every season with new personal goals, setting them higher than the year before. He hit one of his targets last season and fell just short of another: 100-plus catches and 1,300-plus yards. He had proved his point by the end of the year, that he belongs among the best receivers in the game. Entering this season, personal goals are secondary for St. Brown.
"I'm not really worried about those anymore," he said. "I'm worried about the team, the playoffs. I'm going to take care of myself, I already know that. But making sure this team is where it needs to be, which I know we can do, I'm excited for that. Trying to become more of a leader."
Jared Goff arrived in Detroit at the outset of a rebuild. A reject of the Rams, he was viewed as a bridge quarterback until the Lions could find someone better. Now he's getting asked about an extension. (He's open to it, by the way.) He has gone from a castoff in Hollywood to one of the main characters of a comeback in Detroit, a face of one of the NFL's hottest teams. Everyone's talking about the Lions.
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With money to spend in free agency, the Lions didn't just bring back key contributors from last season. GM Brad Holmes went out and rebuilt the secondary with instant starters in Cam Sutton, Emmanuel Moseley and C.J. Gardner-Johnson and added fuel to the offense with former Bears running back David Montgomery. ("He’s a baller," St. Brown said of Montgomery.)
"You see it up top," said Goff, "with the moves they made in the offseason. It’s more aggressive this year, and it trickles into us. We see everything and we know what’s going on, the aggressiveness of taking our shot knowing that we have a team that can compete with anybody and really go try to make some noise this year."
St. Brown arrived in Detroit a couple months after Goff. At the time, the Lions were only relevant for Dan Campbell soundbites: What will he say next? As Campbell's novelty wore off and his team started 0-10-1, the Lions were all but forgotten. (How will they lose next?) They're relevant now for being a legitimate threat in the NFC, one of only three teams last season to win five games in its division, the only non-playoff team to win seven games in its conference.
Their sights are set on hosting a playoff game this season, for the first time ever at Ford Field.
"At the end of the day, we've still got to go get it," said St. Brown. "Everyone has social media, everyone sees what everyone else sees. Teams now know we're not just a walk-over team, or, ‘Oh it’s the Lions, we can take it easy this game.’ They know the Lions are projected to win the NFC North. And we understand that. I think it’s just going to make it that much more fun for us this year.”
In Goff's words, "there’s a vibe" in Allen Park. The players reunited Tuesday with the shared belief that they belong. When Goff declared last season that the Lions were aiming to "win the division and compete for a championship," did anyone really believe him? A year later, it's hard to doubt him. The Lions have what it takes to win the NFC North for first time since it was called the NFC Central, including a coach who proved last season that he's up to the moment.
"That urgency and intensity and excitement is all there now," said Goff. "We’ve built a pretty good foundation the last two years here."
In year three, their work is just beginning. A foundation is only as strong as what it supports.
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