Tuesday open thread: Do you want the Detroit Lions to win another game in 2021?

The monkey is officially off the Detroit Lions’ back. There will not be a winless season in store for Dan Campbell and the Lions their first year. Their dramatic win over the Minnesota Vikings ensured that, and got players that sweet, sweet taste of victory they’ve been scrapping and clawing for over the past year.

With five more games left, it’s a good opportunity for Detroit to start stacking wins. A nice little streak in December could give this team some confidence that the message of this new regime and the culture is actually working. Start pulling off some upsets, and who knows? Maybe there’s something special in store for the 2022 season.

Of course, there comes some significant downside with a late-season winning streak. Currently the Lions hold just a half-game lead in 2022 NFL Draft order. For the past couple weeks, fans have been dreaming of adding pass rushers Kayvon Thibodeaux or Aidan Hutchinson to the Lions defense. But if Detroit somehow wins two or three or four games, they would very likely fall out of the top two picks in the draft. Even one more win would threaten their top pick in the draft, with both the Jaguars and Texans currently sitting with two wins on the season—although the two play each other in a couple of weeks.

So today’s Question of the Day is:

Do you want the Lions to win another game this season?

My answer: Absolutely I do. Universally speaking, winning is better for a franchise than losing. And while I don’t exactly believe in year-to-year momentum, I do want to see this team capable of putting together some consistent performances week-to-week. That’s the sign of true progress. That’s the sign that the Lions aren’t just stacking meaningless wins, but they’re actually getting better.

Now, I’m not an idiot. Missing out on Thibodeaux or Hutchinson would hurt. It’d be something we’d always think about, especially if those players go on to have All Pro careers. But the future of this franchise is not going to sink or swim based on the acquisition of one or two very specific players—especially if they aren’t quarterbacks. General manager Brad Holmes has all the ammunition over the next two drafts to turn this thing around, regardless of whether Detroit has a top-two pick this year or not.

Ideally, we see some serious improvement from the Lions down the stretch, they pick up one more win, and they still finish with the first or second overall pick in the draft. But if the Lions somehow get in a bit of a groove in the final five weeks, I’m not going to complain.

I think it’s worth closing out this post noting that the Lions are going to try to win these games regardless of what you think. No player wants to play for a tanking head coach. No matter how much we cry and scream about draft position, every head coach is going to try to win games every week. This post is to simply gauge what fans want.

So let’s hear it. It’s your turn.