Vote on the Detroit Lions’ 2024 Play of the Year

The Detroit Lions had a ton of crazy plays from the 2024 season, but only one can be the best. Vote on the 2024 Detroit Lions Play of the Year.

There are not enough staff members on Pride of Detroit to nominate all of the worth candidates for the Detroit Lions’ 2024 Play of the Year. Some teams only get one or two unforgettable moments for a season. The Lions had upwards of 20, and it happened in all phases of the game: offense, defense, and special teams.

If you need a trip down memory lane, this highlight reel of the best plays from the Lions’ 2024 season offers 13 of Detroit’s most memorable moments.

But there can only be one winner for this award. Here are our nominees for 2024 Detroit Lions Play of the Year. Scroll down to the poll at the bottom of the post to determine the winner.

Previous awards:

• Breakout Player of the Year
• Special Teams Player of the Year
• Rookie of the Year
• Coach of the Year
• Game of the Year
• Pride of Detroit Moment of the Year
• Defensive Player of the Year
• Offensive Player of the Year

Detroit Lions 2024 Play of the Year

Jeremy Reisman: David Montgomery bulldozes Devon Witherspoon

In a season filled with crazy trick plays and high-pressure moments, the play that will stick with me the longest is David Montgomery stealing the soul of Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon. What should have been a checkdown pass for 2 yards turned into a 40-yard explosive play I’ll never forget. He made just about every single player on the Seahawks defense miss a tackle on the way to one of the most impressive single efforts of any play in 2024.

Max Gerber: Dan Skipper’s TD vs. Bills

Who doesn’t love to see an offensive lineman get the ball? Especially when it’s fan-favorite Dan Skipper, who the crowd erupts for every time he reports as eligible. The man who looms over the rest of the offense, nearly seven-feet tall, laid out a quick block against a Buffalo defensive lineman and released to a shoddy out route. The cherry on top was when he lowered his shoulder and attempted to truck a defender just for the fun of it as he crossed into the end zone. A year after the Dallas debacle, Skipper finally got six.

Al Karsten: 4th-and-inches conversion vs. Packers

Moving past some of the genius and razzle dazzle of the hook-and-ladders, the tackle eligible pass, the reverses, flea flickers, and even the Stumbleroski—the Lions’ most impactful play of the season was a hand-off on their fifth fourth-down attempt of their Week 14 Thursday night bricktacular Jake Bates walk-off.

It was a tie ballgame with 43 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and the Lions had fourth-and-inches at the Packers 21-yard line. Dan Campbell elected to go for it and went off right tackle for 7 yards with David Montgomery. Campbell told everyone when he was hired that they would drag opponents into the abyss and outlast them and that’s what they did right there. It was the personification of gritty winning. Ending the game on their terms.

Ty Schalter: 4th-and-inches conversion vs. Packers

Jared Goff is never gonna run for 900 yards in a season. He’s never gonna run an RPO and have a linebacker more afraid of him keeping it than giving it to his All-Pro tailback. He might not even ever catch his own pass for a touchdown. But in one play, Jared Goff committed every bit of athleticism he had to compensating for adversity and putting the ball right in David Montgomery’s gut as if nothing had happened. And in what was the most important—and Most Lions—play of the season to that point, Monty got not only the inches he needed but seven damn yards on top of it.

Erik Schlitt: Walk-off David Montgomery TD vs. Rams

The Lions opened the season by hosting the Los Angeles Rams on “Sunday Night Football” and both teams battled to a 20-20 tie at the end of regulation. Detroit won the coin flip and the Lions showed the world who they really were. The Lions ran eight plays in overtime, one pass (to Jahmyr Gibbs), and seven runs, with five of them going to David Montgomery. The Lions’ physicality shined and the offensive line bullied the Rams at the line of scrimmage, while Montgomery took away their will to fight. Finally, with the ball on the 1-yard line, the Lions turned to Montgomery once more and he bulldozed his way into the endzone for the win.

Hamza Baccouche: Hook-and-ladder vs. Cardinals

I wrote about this (specific to trick plays) in December, and my answer hasn’t changed. The hook and ladder from Amon-Ra St. Brown to Jahmyr Gibbs in Arizona was unlike any other trick play we’ve seen, and it was so perfectly timed and executed that it’s my favorite.

John Whiticar: Stumblerooski vs. Bears

I’m not the oldest football fan out there, but I have never seen a play call like that before. The creativity alone is insane—draw up a play where your quarterback and running back stumble intentionally?! Factor in the perfect execution as well, it was simply an unbelieve play in a season of unbelievable plays.

Meko Scott: Any hook-and-ladder play

The “Hook and Ladder” plays were some of the most fun and explosive plays the Lions ran all year and I refuse to choose just one. This is a play you probably couldn’t recreate in a video game one single time and yet Detroit called and successfully executed FIVE of them in one season. Absolutely ludicrous.

Brandon Knapp: David Montgomery bulldozes Devon Witherspoon

While it wasn’t a scoring play, it was the perfect play to show what this team was made out of. Montgomery didn’t just catch the ball and get tackled, he destroyed Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon and continued to run, and then he broke another tackle, and another, he just couldn’t be brought down. Montgomery turned a play where it was expected to be a few yards and made it bigger, and not because he was faster, quicker, or had better route running. He was physical, consistent, and determined to make the most out of the play and give it his all, which this team lives and breathes by.

Morgan Cannon: Jameson Williams goes Beastmode

Let me take you back to the second half of a Week 11 blowout win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Wide receiver Jameson Williams caught a crosser, turned up field, and at the end of a 64-yard scamper, did his best Marshawn Lynch impression as he jumped into the endzone.

Ryan Mathews: Jahmyr Gibbs snatches Camryn Bynum’s ankles

There were so many plays from the season to choose from, all of them are deserving—except for Skipper’s touchdown—but this one was a personal favorite. Aside from the insane speed and agility from Jahmyr Gibbs that made Camryn Bynum look silly, this was the run that brought about Josh Bayer’s first masterpiece: