The Detroit Lions have enjoyed a successful few seasons, but a few games have been real doozies. One that comes to mind, of course, is the first playoff game last season, where the Lions fell, and fell hard, to the Washington Commanders, 45-31. That dashed any hopes the team had for finally getting to the Super Bowl, for the first time in franchise history, that season.
Another game that left the Lions fanbase in total shock and disarray was the team’s loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship game for the 2023-24 season. The team was so close to getting to the big game but fell short in what became a massive comeback from the 49ers.
Now, according to a new study, one player on the 49ers‘ team is actually the Detroit Lions’ biggest Achilles’ heel.
Detroit Lions Don’t Like Playing This Guy
In a June 4 feature for PFF, Dalton Wasserman names every NFL team’s Achilles’ heel from the past few seasons. In the piece, they look at the highest-graded player, offensive or defensive, against each NFL team over the past five seasons.
“The only requirement is that said player has to have played at least 100 snaps against a team, effectively ensuring that at least two games occurred between the opponents,” Wasserman notes.
It’s an interesting piece, because it points out the NFL player who has performed best against each NFL team. Some of these players are surprising, including the player for the Detroit Lions.
Wasserman says Trent Williams of the 49ers has performed the best against the Lions out of any other opponent.
“Williams makes his second appearance on this list, this time for his work against Detroit,” Wasserman stated in the piece. “He’s faced the Lions twice in the past four years and earned at least an elite 90.0 PFF overall grade on both occasions.”
Wasserman adds, “As is often the case with Williams, the brunt of the damage was done on the ground. He earned an incredible 92.6 PFF run-blocking grade across the two matchups.”
Williams is riding on a three-year, $82 million contract with the San Francisco 49ers, and it sounds like he’s worth every penny.
A Reason to Hope for the Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions have a plethora of reasons to be optimistic in 2025, and in a separate June 10 feature for PFF, Wasserman gives a reason for optimism for each NFL team in 2025. “Every NFL team will enter the 2025 season with a clean slate — no wins, no losses,” he states in the story. “While those records will shift dramatically in the following weeks, each franchise has some hope of finding success until then.”
The reasons usually have to do with certain players who are expected to help their teams immensely, and when it comes to the Vikings, he could have gone with a range of positives.
For the Lions, he’s so hot on the idea of Aidan Hutchinson being back that he even makes Hutchinson’s photo to cover photo for the feature.
“Hutchinson’s injury was the primary reason the Lions saw a large decrease in pass-rush production down the stretch. If he returns to last year’s form, he changes the outlook of the entire defense,” he notes.
