Through five games, the Detroit Lions are 3-2. With a choppy offense akin to an engine in a Michigan winter, and a defense more inconsistent 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 match a portion of fans who had already grabbed their pitchforks. The slow start had them marching due west to continue Kelvin Sheppard’s play call after Jacoby Brissett ran 73 yards in 14 plays for a touchdown. A second straight three-and-out for the offense…and then a third the one that caps Detroit’s first-quarter performance made me wonder if any of us would make it out alive. A week off to ruminate on a performance like this would have been enough for me to dedicate my two weeks to Pride of Detroit.
But, eventually, that engine turned over and the offense began to purr 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 straight drives. Meanwhile, the defense forced five straight Arizona three-and-outs. Before Sunday, the Lions defense had only forced a total on five three-and-outs — tied for fewest with Kansas City and Jacksonville. Detroit hasn’t played such perfectly complementary football in who knows how long.
Sam LaPorta has to get paid, so Brad Holmes and everyone else on the Cape could find themselves on a working vacation this week for way more than expected. LaPorta, now known as the guy whose back health won’t be in question after Mack Wilson came at him like a T-1000, is the kind of talent Detroit so desperately missed last season. It’s very clear how important he is to this offense. To this point, his contributions this season have been more palpable than those of any other offensive playmaker not named Jahmyr Gibbs.
He is 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 over five weeks. He is second in yards per reception (11.7) behind Jameson Williams (15.3) for any receiver with at least 10 catches. Of Detroit’s four key playmakers, 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 it; pay this man his money.
The Strange Case of Amon-Ra St. Brown
St. Brown’s rather pedestrian start to the 2026 season is proof that the receiver is human. In a game where he fumbled the ball twice — lucky enough to have special teams aces Tay Martin and Tate Ratledge recover them both — and dropped at least one pass that we saw him catch regularly, 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 about what that means for this Lions offense. It’s really too talented to accept mediocrity, as Dan Campbell suggests, and it’s too multifaceted to fail.
Keith Abney? The fifth-round rookie cornerback?
Campbell and Sheppard both talked about shuffling personnel before their Week 5 game against Arizona, but who knew that meant taking a fifth-round rookie intended to be a cornerback and playing him at safety? Abney was one of the most valuable selections in the entire 2026 NFL Draft according to consensus committees, but with just 25 defensive snaps in Week 1 and a few inactive designations scattered between here and now, it’s a pretty bold move to ask him to play 59 of the team’s 73 snaps on defense.
“I thought he was solid,” Campbell said of Abney’s performance Sunday. “The things that came to his mind were, ‘Hey, I’ve never done that before,’ which is what you want for a rookie… I thought he played a good game, you know? First start – first start in the NFL – at safety, he never played safety. He racked up some reps for us, you know, we cross-trained 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 this? Brian Branch returns just in time to team up with Abney, who the Lions view as a young player with potential for growth and improvement? Do you know what it is? This is the Lions secondary slowly getting back into place because contrary to popular belief, Humpty Dumpty can’t hurt you. Many things like quicksand, black holes, and Humpty Dumpty end up playing a much smaller role in your life than you would have imagined when you were 9 years old.
You take Jahmyr Gibbs for granted
You simply are. Maybe you think you appreciate what Gibbs does week in and week out, but that’s not the case. Does the name Kerryon Johnson mean anything to you? Plural years — five of them, to be exact — the Lions have gone without a single player rushing for 100 yards, and now Gibbs is breaking records every week. Gibbs is so good—“How good is he?” » —Gibbs is SO Well every week we highlight the performances of other offensive players 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 the featured image for their article. Hell, I’m guilty of it myself starting this article talking about Sam LaPorta, especially 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 damn good season. Anytime you can start your season with 12 touchdowns and 0 interceptions, you’re doing great. He certainly does a lot more than “sure not to help” the offense, but there is very clearly a basis for MVP candidates on this offense – and Gibbs is at the top of the table. This isn’t a slight on Goff, it’s so boring and tired and frankly pointless to say that the QB with the best numbers on a team headed to the playoffs should be the first pick for the league’s most valuable player. Watch a Lions game and tell me what player this offense couldn’t do without. Hint: It’s the one everyone continues to torment themselves over using, out of fear that their body won’t be able to withstand the punishment of a 17-game NFL season.
So where do the Lions go from here?
A win against the Cardinals, as convincing as it was, wasn’t going to do much for fans who had already made up their minds on defense. And with the offense getting off to a slow start, there’s another talking point for those skeptical of the Lions’ chances of being a true contender.
But this team, despite a somewhat disappointing 3-2 start, is receiving reinforcements on the other side of its early season bye. The branch, if it is in good health, really makes the difference. Cade Mays will be an upgrade at the center position, not only raising the offensive line’s ceiling but also further bolstering the depth should they need to call upon Juice Scruggs in the future. These aren’t the new additions fans were clamoring for after the first four games, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, but that won’t make them any less impactful.
The lesson from this roller coaster start to the season is that this league is full of quirks. 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 is not calculated in the NFL. It’s a long season, but the Lions are still headed to the playoffs in a messy NFC.
Gn sports
