Stars are great, but every elite team needs unsung heroes. The Detroit Lions have them.

Yes, he has seen this before.

The wins piling up. The excitement building. A team growing together.

And the fans starting to talk about the playoffs.

Detroit Lions backup quarterback Teddy Bridgewater has played in the NFL for nine seasons, and he has been on five playoff teams (2015 Vikings, 2017 Vikings, 2018 Saints, 2019 Saints and 2022 Dolphins).

So, Bridgewater seemed the perfect person to offer some perspective on this Lions team, which seems destined for the postseason. Because he knows what a winner looks like.

“You've been on a lot of teams that made the playoffs — what do you see in this team?” I asked him. “What makes this team special?”

I was expecting him to say something about the offense.

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Maybe he'd say something about this team’s ability to score, or the play-calling, or all the offensive talent, or maybe even the offensive line.

But Bridgewater took the conversation in an entirely different direction, saying something that surprised me.

“I've only been here 2½ months, so every day I'm just learning something different about these guys,” he said, sitting in the Lions locker room. “Different leaders step up each week, whether it's on game day or throughout the week in practice, and that's the sign of a great team. You have captains, who have the 'C' on their jersey, and they are doing a great job.

"But then you have those group of men who are leaders that go unnoticed, and I'm noticing that more and more each week. It's different people every week.”

Well, that's interesting, not only because he said magical words that haven't been uttered about the Lions in a long time — a great team — but because Bridgewater has been around so many playoff teams. His opinion carries more validity because of his experience.

“I mean, you got guys like Jerry (Jacobs) and Cam Sutton in the DB (defensive backs) room,” he said. “Some of the tight ends, guys like Brock (Wright).”

"Really?” I asked, having never considered Wright as a leader.

“Yeah, it’s the guys coming to work every day, man, and no one notices,” Bridgewater said. “You know they're not getting the attention but they're doing some of the dirty work around here.”

And they are the unsung heroes.

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Handing out some flowers

Maybe that puts everything into perspective.

Maybe now you understand why the Lions had so much confidence in Wright at a key moment on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers. In the fourth quarter of a wild shootout, on third-and-1 from the Chargers 25, everybody thought the Lions would run it.

Even the Chargers.

But Wright faked a block and slipped through the linebackers, and Goff popped him for a 25-yard touchdown.

“We talk about 'invest in reliability,' right?” Lions coach Dan Campbell said on Monday at his press conference, while talking about Wright. “He’s an investment because this guy is as reliable as they get. Sometimes he just flies under the radar because he does all the dirty work nobody ever really sees.”

Yes, Campbell sounded exactly like Bridgewater.

Then, Campbell literally explained some of the things we don’t see.

“Man, (Wright) showed up in the run game yesterday,” Campbell said on Monday. “He had a couple protections in the backside we had talked about. You mention to him, ‘Hey, if they just happen to bring this, you need to stay in and block it,’ he did that. He didn’t miss a beat, and you only have to tell him something once. And then, man, here’s your one opportunity, right, on the pop pass and the worst thing that could happen, this defender kind of loops out, he was able to maneuver through it, set his angle and man, he’s just a steady, reliable piece for us. There’s a lot of trust. I can tell you between the coaches and his teammates, there’s a tremendous amount of trust with that player. They know he’s going to do his job.”

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Why this success is sustainable

When you look at the Lions’ 7-2 record and try to dig into what has changed, it’s easy to focus on the big names, guys such as Goff, or Amon-Ra St. Brown, or Jahmyr Gibbs or Aidan Hutchinson.

But stars, alone, cannot win.

Want proof?

Think about the Barry Sanders era.

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Or even the Calvin Johnson/Matthew Stafford era.

The Lions have had plenty of stars and never found sustained success.

If you want to win, you need something else.

You need a long list of guys doing the dirty work.

Leading by example.

The unsung heroes.

“Everyone wants to say the rah-rah guys are the leaders, but sometimes it's the guy who's doing the work behind the scenes, who don't get their flowers that they deserve,” Bridgewater said. “It’s guys like D-Mo (David Montgomery), a guy who's been fighting through certain injuries, but he's still been there for Jah (Jahmyr Gibbs) behind the scenes. Or a guy like Craig Reynolds, who just shows up, might not know what the status is during the week, but come Sunday, if he's active, he's going to be 110%. It's guys like Graham (Glasgow), practicing at guard all week and then playing center.”

Bridgewater was sitting at his locker and looked across the room, wanting to name as many players as possible.

“It’s someone like Alim McNeill, a guy who's just making plays every week,” Bridgewater said. “And he just comes to work every day, sets a great example, especially to be a young guy. So that's a great sign to see.”

Bridgewater looked me in the eyes.

“Those guys help mold and form the foundations of organizations,” he said. “It's a core group of guys, helping build on the foundation that's already been laid.”

“That’s the difference? That’s what makes a team special?” I asked.

“Yes," he said, firmly.

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“But it’s new guys every week?” I asked.

“It’s very exciting,” Bridgewater said. “You watch the Lions and you are like, who is this No. 13 guy (Craig Reynolds)? He runs hard. He's been making plays every time his numbers called since he's been in the league, whether it was in Washington or here. So it's fun to see because sometimes you get young guys who have success, and they don't even realize how good they truly are and how valuable they truly are. Sometimes in this business, you can lose sight of your value because you get tossed around, you get thrown on the shelves. One week, two weeks go by, you are forgotten, and then boom. Three weeks go by and 'Oh, we need you.'

The Lions have some emerging stars and a strong offensive line.

But the next tier of players is what is the most exciting about this team.

They aren’t just filling roster slots. They are doing the dirty work, showing up in all kinds of consistent, reliable ways, never complaining, forming a rock-solid foundation that you can't even see on the surface.

But they have played a direct role in these wins, whether it’s Reynolds rushing for 74 yards against the Raiders, or Wright catching a TD, or Glasgow playing left guard, center or right guard — wherever they need him.

“It's great just to see the response by those guys,” Bridgewater said.

It is, as Campbell said, an investment in reliability.

And it’s the undercurrent of why this team is doing special things.

Contact Jeff Seidel at jseidel@freepress.com or follow him @seideljeff.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Every great team needs unsung heroes, and the Detroit Lions have them