Sunday open thread: What is the Detroit Lions’ ceiling for the 2022 season?

Back in early May, we polled Lions fans to see how many wins they think the team will win in 2022. The majority (62 percent) had them in the 6-8 win range, while 26 percent had them winning between 9-11 games and 2 percent were feeling some type of way and believed the team could win 12 or more games.

Vegas seems to be aligning itself with the 62 percent and has the Detroit Lions’ over/under set at 6.5 wins. That seems to be a pretty reasonable number for a team in its second year with a new regime. But today I’m not going to ask you simply how many wins you think the Lions will get. Let’s set our sights higher.

Today’s Question of the Day is...

What is the Lions’ ceiling for the 2022 NFL season?

My answer: For the sake of this exercise, I’ll say the Lions’ most realistic best-case scenario would be 10 wins and a Wild Card playoff berth.

Even if everything were to go right for them, I don’t think this is the year they even have a chance at winning the division. Going from 3 to 10 wins is a massive increase and not something that I would bet on, but it may not be as crazy as it sounds.

The roster looks significantly better than it did last year, and that’s a testament to the great job that general manager Brad Holmes has done acquiring talent this offseason.

The offense looked much improved last year once coach Dan Campbell took over playcalling duties from Anthony Lynn. When you look at how Jared Goff played in the later stages of the season and you give him new pieces like DJ Chark and Jameson Williams, once he’s fully recovered from his injury, this offense has a chance to be something pretty special in Year 2.

But none of this is going to be possible if the defense doesn’t show significant improvements. Holmes and company have spent a lot of capital trying to beef up the defensive line, adding guys like Aidan Hutchinson, Joshua Paschal, and James Houston through the draft and re-signing Charles Harris in free agency who is coming off of a career year, leading the Lions in sacks in 2021.

If the Lions can get a lot more production out of this unit, that will be the key to unlocking the potential of the defense as a whole. And if the defense can transform from a liability into an average or better unit, then this is a team that can definitely make a push for the playoffs.