It was Alex Anzalone who said it first, in a somber locker room after the Lions fell a few plays short in the NFC title game. The standard moving forward, said the team's defensive captain, is "Super Bowl or bust." It was Brad Holmes who said it most recently, at a podium ahead of the most anticipated season in franchise history. Expectations? "Win the Super Bowl," said the GM.
The head coach hasn't shied away from it. But as the Lions shrink their focus ahead of Sunday night's season opener against the Rams, Dan Campbell told his players Monday morning, "Let’s not talk about it anymore." That is, let's go do it, one game at a time.
"We’re to the point now where that doesn’t even matter anymore," Campbell said. "What does that do? Does nothing. Now it’s about the steps to get there. And the steps are, you better win your division, because you get a home game. Then once you get a home game, it’s all about seeding."
To that end, Campbell pointed out that a game on the first weekend of September could loom large in January. The Rams, whose season ended last January in Detroit, figure to be right back in the playoff picture in the NFC. Sunday night's result could plot the path for both teams this winter. There's no telling which game on the schedule could serve as a tiebreaker.
"It starts with this first game, NFC opponent who could win the West at the end of this year ... who I think is going to be staring at all of us in the playoffs at the end of this year, too," Campbell said.
The Lions won two playoff games last season in large part because they got two games at home. They took down the Bucs after dispatching the Rams, their reward for winning the North and finishing third in the NFC. They didn't lose until they had to travel to San Francisco, the 49ers' reward for finishing first. Both teams are Super Bowl favorites this season. The Lions are again favored to win the North, but the task feels taller with the Packers and Bears on the rise.
"As a competitor, it’s exciting," Anzalone said Monday as he embarks on his fourth season in Detroit. "This is how it should be, these are the expectations that you want as a competitor. You don’t want to put one thing in front of the other and there’s a lot of outside noise and excitement, but Dan put it a good way -- today he actually said it -- the first goal is winning the division. That’s our focus, that’s our mindset, and it starts Week 1 against a really good NFC opponent."
Anzalone is the Lions' longest-tenured starter on defense. Taylor Decker is the longest-tenured player on the team, beginning year nine with the franchise that drafted him in the first round in 2016. He's been through a lot with the Lions, who have come out better on the other side. Now he's a leader on one of the top offensive lines in the NFL.
Even in the worst of times, on the worst of teams, Decker's work never wavered. He's not about to let it slip now, on what could be the Lions' best team yet.
"You’ve seen it too many times, if you look too far ahead, you might be three, four weeks in the season and you’re like, 'Uh-oh, what’s going on here?’ We’re not going to let that happen," Decker said Monday. "We got the right mindset of guys, and I know Brad and Dan have done all of their homework to bring in the right people who are going to be culture fits around here, so I don’t foresee that being an issue."
Decker, for his part, doesn't think the Super Bowl has been "a big conversation topic within the building." Outside it, of course, it's all anyone can talk about. Decker just knows that you can't win it today -- and that "you never overlook an opponent, no matter what. That’s just crazy in the NFL." Not that the Lions would be tempted to do that, playing the Rams and the Bucs out of the gate.
"We’d be doing a disservice to ourselves, the fanbase, anybody who supports us, if we didn’t take Week 1 as seriously as possible, and then Week 2 after that," Decker said. "We gotta have victories week by week, so to speak, to reach our end goals."
The Lions know what's out there in the distance. They're just done squinting at it, lest they lose sight of what's in front of them.