How much optimism is warranted with the Detroit Lions right now?

For a 3-13-1 team, there’s an unprecedented amount of optimism for the Detroit Lions right now. They finished the season 3-3, and two of those games were with a backup quarterback. Dan Campbell has proven to be the ultimate culture builder, leading the locker room to incredibly high spirits after Allen Park felt like more of a prison under his predecessor. But he also surprised many with his Xs and Os ability, taking over play calling duties at the midway point of the season and undeniably helping turn around an anemic offense.

Last time we checked, around 95 percent of Lions fans were optimistic about the future of this team, but how much of that is actually warranted? How much has Campbell already proven, and what should fans still be concerned about?

On Thursday night, we took a step back from our own takes. We are, after all, fans of this team, and sometimes we get caught up in the emotions and the excitement.

Instead, we invited Kyle Meinke, Lions beat writer from MLive, to give his thoughts on the first year of this new era of Lions football. We also talked about general manager Brad Holmes’ end-of-season press conference, his thoughts on which free agents should be priority re-signings for the Lions, and how much time Jared Goff has bought for himself after a strong finish to the 2021 season.

Meinke gives us a pretty honest, but still pretty optimistic take on the Lions and the future of this franchise. You can listen to our interview with him below.

And if you want more Meinke in audio form, be sure to check out his Lions podcast with fellow MLive writer Ben Raven called the “Dungeon of Doom.”

As for our podcast, you can catch this episode—and all of our episodes—on your favorite podcasting platform: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iHeartRadio. Follow Pride Of Detroit on Twitch to get notified when we record the PODcast live and chat with us. Video replays are available on both Twitch and YouTube.

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