Only 7 percent of NFC North fans expect Detroit Lions to win the division

Earlier in the week, we saw that Vegas set the Detroit Lions’ win total for 2019 at just seven, a couple games behind every other team in their division. It’s a good measure of what the public perception of the team may be at this point in the offseason.

But what is the perception of fans that know the Lions the most? This week, SB Nation polled readers from all of the NFC North sites—Windy City Gridiron (Bears), Acme Packing Company (Packers), The Daily Norseman (Vikings), and, obviously, the Lions community here at Pride of Detroit. The question is simple: Who should be the favorite to win the NFC North in 2019?

The poll results will not surprise you:

For a team that hasn’t won their division since 1991, you’d expect the rest of the NFC North foes to not give them much attention, even after a splashy free agency period.

The additions of Trey Flowers, Jesse James and Justin Coleman among others have impressed Lions fans, but they’ve done literally nothing to convince Packers, Vikings and Bears that Detroit should contend for the division title. According to our FanPulse polls, 37 percent of Lions fans thought Detroit is now the favorite to win the division. However, the Lions didn’t receive a single vote from the surveys of the three other NFC North sites.

And even when comparing homerism to the other NFC North teams, Lions fans are chugging the least amount of Kool-Aide. Take a look at the percentage of each team’s fanbase that voted for their own team as the division favorites:

Windy City Gridiron (Bears): 98%
Acme Packing Company (Packers): 51%
Daily Norseman (Vikings): 49%
Pride of Detroit (Lions): 37%

None of this is particularly surprising given not only that the Lions haven’t won the division in over two decades, but because they finished last in the NFC North last year with a disappointing 6-10 record. That all being said, there weren’t that many believers in the Bears last year, and look what happened.