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In a recent piece for ESPN, Pro Football Focus ranked all 32 NFL teams. This wasn't based strictly on grades from last season or power rankings for 2014 or anything like that, though. Instead, PFF ranked the teams based on their current rosters. In other words, this is a look at which teams have the most perceived talent going into the 2014 season.
Interestingly, the Detroit Lions came in 11th in the entire NFL. They have "elite" players in Calvin Johnson and Ndamukong Suh, and there are "high quality" players in Joique Bell, Larry Warford and Stephen Tulloch. Also, PFF categorized Matthew Stafford, Reggie Bush, Golden Tate, Dominic Raiola, Nick Fairley and Glover Quin as "good" starters.
Perhaps most importantly for the Lions, there are no "poor" starters in their lineup. There's a decent amount of "average" or "below-average" starters on defense, but generally speaking, there's a pretty good amount of talent in place, especially on the offensive side of the ball.
Even though they're 11th overall, the Lions are actually only seventh in the NFC, which I suppose is just more proof of how stacked the conference is. In the NFC North, the Lions are behind only the Green Bay Packers, which landed eighth on this list. The Chicago Bears, meanwhile, came in 15th, and the Minnesota Vikings are way down at No. 29.