Notes: A glimpse of what the 2020 Lions may look like

While the Detroit Lions are insisting they’re not throwing in the towel this year and have confidence in the players that currently remain in the locker room, it’s always important to keep an eye on the future. Some of the players on the Lions’ current roster should be staples of the team two years from now.

With that in mind, ESPN’s Bill Barnwell took a look at who may be around for all 32 franchises in the year 2020. He split key players into three categories: virtual locks, on the bubble, and unlikely notables.

Barnwell’s list is fairly straightforward, with guys like Matthew Stafford, Kerryon Johnson, Jarrad Davis and Darius Slay being key locks. However, one interesting name on his list of locks is Teez Tabor. Obviously, the Lions would love to have Tabor as a key member of their secondary going forward, but he has a lot to prove to make that leap.

“Tabor had a disastrous game against the Seahawks,” Barnwell admits. “But the 2017 second-round pick is still young enough — and the Lions are thin enough in the secondary behind Slay — for the Florida product to eventually carve out a regular role.”

The whole piece is worth a read, just to get an idea of what kind of key pieces this team currently has, and what positions they may need to fill down the line.

• Dan Orlovsky is back with DetroitLions.com’s Mike O’Hara to break down the film of the Minnesota Vikings and what makes their offense so potent at times:

• In the mood for some Golden Tate nostalgia? Kyle Meinke has the top 10 Tate GIFs from his Lions career.

• Da’Shawn Hand has been the best rookie interior defensive lineman this season, and it hasn’t really even been close:

• If you had to pick one current quarterback to orchestrate a game-winning drive, who would it be? For at least one writer at The Ringer, the answer is Matthew Stafford.

• Speaking of Stafford, he was mic’d up for the Seahawks game. There’s not a lot of content there to work with, but Stafford dropping his tablet in frustration is good GIF material:

• The Lions’ mini-documentary series “Under the Helmet” continued this week with center Graham Glasgow. Get to know the locker room goofball a little better.