Detroit Lions legend Barry Sanders has full confidence that his former team can bounce back next season.![Lions great Barry Sanders eclipses 2,000 yards | The Blade]()
The Lions are coming off of a heartbreaking loss in the playoffs, a huge upset while facing the Washington Commanders despite entering the postseason as the NFC's No. 1 seed. Detroit allowed 45 points in their 45-31 loss against the Commanders and failed to win a playoff game despite finishing with the NFL's best record at 15-2.
That's in addition to the Lions blowing a 17-point lead in the NFC Championship Game against the San Francisco 49ers during the 2023 season.
However, the Philadelphia Eagles recently won a Super Bowl after losing in the Big Game a few years prior. That's in addition to being blown out and losing their Wild Card playoff game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the conclusion of the 2023 season.
“ Absolutely, it's happened so many times in the history of this league,” says Sanders in a one-on-one interview. “Look at Philadelphia. They got to the Super Bowl a couple years ago. Last season, they went through the regular season pretty easily, and then they just kind of fell off the map.”
Sanders has a point. The Eagles bounced back in a major way this past season even though head coach Nick Sirianni entered the season on the hot seat after finishing the year losing six of the team's final seven games during the 2023 season. It also helped that Philadelphia added a true difference maker in Saquon Barkley, who ran for over 2,000 yards and won the Offensive Player of the Year. Sanders referred to Barkley as a “generational type of talent.”
It also doesn't hurt that the Lions return their entire main core, including head coach Dan Campbell, quarterback Jared Goff and wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. Sanders refers to the Lions' recent playoff losses as “lessons” that they can use moving forward as the franchise chases its first Super Bowl.
“It happens in this game,” says Sanders of the Lions' recent playoff losses. “Those are some of the lessons from the last couple seasons. We still have a great nucleus. We still got a great coach and Coach Campbell.”
Outside of the departure of offensive coordinator Ben Johnson — he took the head coaching job with the Chicago Bears — the Lions return the same team that went 15-2 during the regular season. It's worth noting that Detroit was also decimated by injuries, with 21 players on injured reserve at one point, including star defensive end Aidan Hutchinson.
“We still have a lot of the same people in the building, says Sanders of the Lions. “We lost some valuable coaching in our offensive coordinator and we understand that. That's a part of this game. But we still have the main ingredient, which is the head coach and the players.”
Sanders makes sure to mention how big of a loss it was when Hutchinson went down due to a season-ending injury in Week 6. The 24-year-old had an NFL-leading 7.5 sacks at the time of his injury.
“The young players in their prime and guys like Aiden Hutchinson coming back, he was on track to be Defensive Player of the Year last year before he was injured,” says Sanders. “You don't just replace guys like that. We're excited to see where we'll stack up with guys like him back in the lineup.”
