Wednesday open thread: Are the Lions contenders or pretenders?

The Lions have turned heads with their unbeaten start three weeks into the regular season, especially after much of the national media wrote them off this season. Wins over the Chargers, who won a playoff game last season, and the Eagles, two seasons removed from winning the Super Bowl, are turning heads now.

Question of the day: Are the Lions contenders or pretenders?

My answer: Contenders.

I’ve been on this train all offseason, including my 11-5 season prediction for the Lions, so I’m certainly a little biased. It’s easy to point out numerous flaws in their two wins the last two weeks, but the team got it done at the end of the day, and an ugly win is still a win—good teams find a way to pull those off.

As Brian Baldinger put it, a lot of great individual performances are making this group feel like a real TEAM.

We haven’t seen this complete of a Lions team in several years (probably since 2014, the last time they went 11-5) and I’m all aboard the hype train.

Your turn.