Hard to say how long Detroit Lions' window will be open, but it doesn't look to be closing soon

The Titanic was supposed to be unsinkable. According to the Mayan calendar, we should have all ceased to exist on Dec. 21, 2012. And the unfixable Y2K bug should have kept me from writing any of this.

In other words, we can look at data, we can wonder at technology and we can take as many educated guesses as we want on any subject, but no one can tell us the future about anything — and least of all the fortunes of an NFL team from one year to the next.

Yes, it helps when you have Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes. But absent a sure-fire Hall of Fame at quarterback, few teams know when their window of winning will open and how long it will stay that way before it inevitably shuts.

The Detroit Lions’ impressive season came to a crashing halt with a second-half meltdown Sunday in a 34-31 loss in the NFC championship game to the San Francisco 49ers. As suddenly as the season ended, questions arose about the future of this team that rocketed to prominence over the past 1½ seasons.

Just minutes after the collapse and devastating loss, and even within in the chaos of the aftermath of such devastation, Lions coach Dan Campbell had enough sense and composure to admit this could have been this team’s only shot to get to the Super Bowl, though he preferred not to believe it.

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But yes, it’s a possibility. So I asked Campbell on Monday what it would take to keep this window of winning open.

“I think it’s everything,” he said. “I think it’s players and coaches. I think it’s — you’ve got to continue to get better, create more competition on the roster and then in the coaches, too. It’s got to be — you’ve got to make sure that you have the right staff and that they all work well together.”

When asked if that included keeping specific players around, Campbell chose to keep his comments general. The most prominent piece of the open window is the highly anticipated hiring of Ben Johnson as the Washington Commanders’ coach, which he agreed would require finding a replacement with a similar skill set.

“He’s a critical piece,” Campbell said. “And I’m not worrying about that just yet. I need to at least get two hours of sleep and then I’ll begin.

“But I’m not going to rush, I can promise you that. I’m not in some mad rush. I’m going to make sure it’s right.”

But can Campbell find someone worthy of being called a “sicko” by left tackle Taylor Decker for his exotic play-calling, the likes of which we’ve never seen in Detroit?

“He’s special,” Decker said in the locker room as players were packing up and saying their good-byes before heading to the offseason, “he’s very gifted. …

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“So I think he does a really good job of blending philosophy with his playmakers and finding out what works. So yeah, he's been multiple and he's absolutely, in my opinion, one of the best in the league and it would suck to see him go. But he earned it and he deserves it. If that’s the way he chooses to go, I’ll be happy for him.”

As a key piece of the elite offensive line, Decker is also one of the pieces propping up the open window. But he turns 31 in August, when he enters the last year of his contract. Frank Ragnow is an elite center, but he’s constantly battling mounting injuries. And they might be in the market for two guards next year. Only All-Pro right tackle Penei Sewell is a sure thing in 2024 and beyond.

Then there’s Jared Goff, who had such a great season that he not only made Lions fans turn their backs — even while wearing No. 9 jerseys — on Matthew Stafford but also had his name become a rallying cry for the team throughout the city.

Goff is entering the final year of his contract and will almost certainly get an extension. The question will be how productive he remains without Johnson.

Tight end Sam LaPorta is a rookie and defensive end Aidan Hutchinson just finished his second season. Amon-Ra St. Brown is only 24, but he’s entering the final year of his bargain-basement rookie contract.

Financial reckonings are part of the window calculus as well. No good team can keep every one of its stars. But Decker chooses to believe in the culture that Campbell has established and the players Brad Holmes has selected to fit that culture as the main supports for keeping the window open.

“I think we can be as good as we want to be for as long as we want to be,” Decker said, “as long as guys continue to do the things like we did this year to put ourselves in a position to succeed.

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“Obviously a young team. I'm not necessarily one of those young guys. But I told (offensive line coach Hank Fraley) today I have a ton of good football left in me. So that's not a concern for me where it's like it's next year or nothing.”

It’s impossible to tell how long the window will stay open for the Lions. It may not be quite as open as some players, coaches, executives and fans prefer it to be. But it’s probably safe to say it isn’t closing in the immediate future.

Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions window hard to predict, but it's not closing soon