The Detroit Lions came so close to their first Super Bowl berth in 2023. Detroit dominated the first half of the NFC Championship game against San Francisco, but let it all slip away in the second half. However, one ESPN projection predicts that the Lions will win it all in 2024.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24910067/usa_today_21366782.jpg)
ESPN’s Seth Walder released an article on Monday that simulates the 2024 NFL season using ESPN’s Football Power Index. Walder ran 20,000 simulations of the 2024 season, but picked one example to highlight one possible scenario for how things could unfold.
The simulation is very kind to the Detroit Lions. It has the Lions finishing as the #1 seed in the NFC with a record of 13-4, guaranteeing them home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The simulation then has Detroit rattle off home playoff victories against the Bears in the divisional round and 49ers in the NFC Championship to reach their first ever Super Bowl.
Walder’s simulation puts the Lions in the way of the Chiefs’ dreams of a threepeat. The simulated Super Bowl was an explosive, offense-driven game that sees Detroit conduct an impressive fourth-quarter comeback. Kansas City had a lead of 28-14 halfway through the fourth quarter. However, a Jahmyr Gibbs touchdown and a Dan Campbell two-point conversion makes it a six-point game late.
Then, unlikely Super Bowl hero Kalif Raymond catches an eight-yard touchdown pass to give the Lions the lead with three minutes left. The Lions manage to stop the Chiefs on the next possession, giving Detroit its first championship since 1957.
Lions fans everywhere are hoping that Detroit can make this simulation become reality in 2024.
Lions QB Jared Goff gets firm endorsement from GM Brad Holmes
If the Lions manage to win a Super Bowl this season, they will no doubt do it on the back of Jared Goff.
Lions general manager Brad Holmes gave a press conference on Thursday where he talked up Goff to the local media.
“He’s the right guy, he’s the leader for us,” Holmes said.
Holmes put his money where his mouth is this offseason. The Lions inked Goff to a massive four-year, $212 million extension back in May. Holmes says the extension has not changed Goff one bit.
“He didn’t need a contract to go out there and do what he does on the field, he truly earned that,” Holmes said Thursday. “I have not seen a change in him. If anything, it’s been better just because it’s another year of the continuity that — I give Dan [Campbell] a lot of credit in terms of the continuity that he’s had with the coaching staff. That’s obviously helped, and we have a lot of familiar faces along with that too. I see it being even better.”
“It’s been amazing to see his growth as a player ever since our days back with the Rams with him,” Holmes continued. “But yeah, I’m not going to say that he needed the contract to elevate him, he was already elevating, playing at a high level, but I do think it’s going to be better for all the other things I named.”
The Lions will open the season with a playoff rematch against the Rams on Sunday Night Football.
