Bold predictions for the 2023 Detroit Lions season
There’s no avoiding the hype surrounding the 2023 Detroit Lions. As the regular season races to begin, so too do the superlatives and excitement from fans in Detroit and around the country. These Lions under Dan Campbell are one of the big NFL media darlings, too.
The team, from GM Brad Holmes on through the players and the coaching staff, appear poised and ready to back it all up. Some great things could be in store for Detroit.
Fueled by a fresh pot of black coffee and with the enthusiasm flowing, here are some bolder predictions for the 2023 Detroit Lions.
Not all of these are positive-tinged. Now that the team has escaped the dark ages of the Quinntricia regime, it’s actually bold to predict some negative outcomes instead of just expecting them to be the reality.
Taylor Decker earns All-Pro status
Decker gets overshadowed a bit as the Lions left tackle because of budding young star Penei Sewell on the right side. Yet Decker is already regarded as one of the league’s better, more reliable LTs.
He took a jump up in 2022. That jump keeps climbing higher in 2023. After a summer where he was outstanding in both pass protection and run blocking, Decker carries over the dominance into the regular season. For what will be his best season yet, Decker will earn second-team All-Pro status and his first Pro Bowl berth.
An unfortunate start
I’ve said it on the Detroit Lions Podcast and radio spots, and I’ll stick with the depressing thought:
I think the Lions start the season 0-2, and it’s about the schedule more than it’s about Dan Campbell’s team. My preseason prediction for the Super Bowl is Kansas City from the AFC and Seattle from the NFC — the two teams the Lions play in Weeks 1 and 2. It’s a brutal way to begin the season schedule.
The Lions will cover the spread in Kansas City as underdogs and will keep it within a touchdown against Seattle too, just like last year’s epic early-season meeting.
Jahmyr Gibbs leads all rookies in TDs
Some will come on breakaway runs. Others will come on cleverly executed screen passes. A few will come from a role Lions fans might recall Theo Riddick excelling in a few years ago as a red zone weapon.
In the end, they’ll all add up for rookie running back Jahmyr Gibbs to lead his draft class in touchdowns in 2023. Gibbs will be the only rookie to hit double digits in TDs.
Kalif Raymond will lead the NFL in punt return average
Technically, Raymond would have led the NFL in this category in 2022 with his 13.2 yards per return, but he didn’t qualify with just 20 return attempts (24 were needed). He’ll top that figure in 2023 and will also get more attempts thanks to a defense that will force more opportunities.
The Lions won't attempt a FG longer than 51 yards
Riley Patterson won the offseason kicking battle, though the Lions did bring back Michael Badgley to the practice squad, just in case. Either way, we won’t see a lot of long field goal attempts for Detroit.
Campbell famously prefers to go for it on 4th downs in the range that produced FG attempts of over 50 yards for decades in Detroit. That won’t change in 2023. In fact, the Lions won’t even try a field goal beyond 51 yards and that will be an end-of-half situation.
Lions D will lead the league in sack percentage
The Lions pass rush was pretty darn good in 2022. Detroit sacked the opposing QB on just over 10 percent of dropbacks, good for third in the NFL.
Bolstered by a better secondary and more usage of a 5-man front with an extra rusher, the Lions will lead the league in sack percentage in 2023 at over 13 percent. Aidan Hutchinson will lead the way with 12.5, with four other Lions all topping five sacks too.
