Mailbag! Which NFL team is best equipped to beat the Detroit Lions, if any?
The Detroit Lions are atop the NFL mountain. They’re tied for the best record in the NFL at 9-1, they’ve got a historically-high DVOA through 10 games, and they’re essentially the unanimous best team in the NFL according to Week 12 power rankings across the web.
But there is no such thing as an unbeatable team. The 2007 undefeated New England Patriots lost to the Giants in the Super Bowl. The Kansas City Chiefs, for all of their greatness over the past few years, have lost an average of 4.3 games per regular season in their three recent Super Bowl years.
So while the Lions seem invincible right now, they’re not. They’re likely to lose a game or two down the stretch, and it’s possible they don’t make the Super Bowl run that everyone is expecting them to.
On this week’s Midweek Mailbag show, Erik Schlitt and I discuss the teams that are best equipped to beat the Lions and why.
The most obvious answer are the titans (not Titans) of the AFC: the Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, and Buffalo Bills. Those have been established powerhouses for a few years now, and they possess the one thing that can tip the scales in their direction no matter how the rest of the game goes: playmaking, elite quarterbacks.
“They all have mobile quarterbacks who can get loose and cause problems,” Schlitt said. “They can live beyond the skill level of their skill (position) players. Those are the teams. It would be the teams that have a quarterback that can overcome the odds, because if you faced any of those three teams against the Lions, the Lions would be favored, in my opinion.”
I think one NFC team can be added to the list, too. Not only are the Philadelphia Eagles on a six-game winning streak, but they possess a lot of the qualities that have given the Lions problems this year.
“Strong defenses that can get to the quarterback rushing four is a problem for this offense—it’s a problem for any offense, let’s be clear,” I noted. “Obviously against the Texans, you didn’t have Taylor Decker, but the Texans lived in the backfield. The Eagles have a very, very good set of defensive line. They basically just have the Georgia defense from the past three years on the defensive front.”
The Eagles can also match the Lions in the trenches on the offensive side of the ball, and have a few receiving threats that could give the Lions’ outside cornerbacks some issues in A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.
But Schlitt thinks the Lions have one clear advantage of the Eagles that Philly wouldn’t be able to overcome.
“The coaching staff of the Eagles can’t hold a candle to the Lions,” he said.
You can listen to that entire discussion around the 37:15 mark of this week’s episode.
Other topics this week:
- 3:40 — How many more activations from IR do the Lions have? Will they have enough for Aidan Hutchinson, John Cominsky, etc.
- 10:00 — What will new Lions linebacker David Long provide the team with in the short term, long term?
- 19:00 — Did Detroit’s anti-positional value stance help them build depth at non-value positions like linebacker?
- 25:15 — Will Ifeatu Melifonwu and/or Derrick Barnes re-sign with the Lions in 2025?
- 33:10 — How confident are you that the Lions win the NFC North?
- 37;15 — Who will challenge the Lions?
- 45:55 — Will the Lions be able to handle mobile QBs in each of the next three weeks?
- 51:10 — Outside of Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson, could the Lions lose any other coaches in the offseason?
- 57:10 — How rare was the Lions’ patience with Glenn?
- 1:03:00 — How confident are you that Jake Bates is the Lions’ franchise kicker for years to come?
You can listen to the entire show below or on any podcasting platform.
But if you want the full experience, be sure to check out the show live next time on Twitch or YouTube. Replays are also available now.
