Dan Campbell will be watching how the Lions respond to something they’ve never dealt with before on Sunday, changes could follow
How will the Lions respond with nothing to play for?
The Detroit Lions have one more game to play on Sunday, and everyone knows it doesn’t mean a lot. But of course, there is some big meaning underneath it all. Lions head coach Dan Campbell talked on Monday about what he’s looking for in this game, and one thing caught my attention. Let’s see if you catch it too.
“How players play, how they do on the road, maybe a second time, how they play at this position, how they handle the pressure, how they handle with nothing to play for, a little bit of everything,” Campbell said. “There’s a lot to find out.”
For the first time in the Dan Campbell era, the Lions have nothing to play for, and Campbell wants to see how players respond to that against the Bears
It’s that little part at the end. How do players play when they have nothing to play for? That is something we’ve never really seen before. Think about it.
You might point to 2021 and say, “Well, they didn’t make the playoffs that year. So weren’t they playing for nothing?” I would argue that, at that time and given how that season went, the Lions went into Week 18 against the Packers looking to prove something. It felt like the whole final month of the season was the Lions trying to prove something.
Then, in 2022, most players knew they were eliminated from the playoffs, but they wanted to make a statement that their time was coming and they wanted to eliminate the Packers, too. Of course, in 2023, they wanted the division at the end of the year, and in 2024, they wanted the first seed. This year, there is absolutely nothing to gain.
So, of course, this is where you watch some players and get an idea of who will go out there and lay it all out and play hard in a game that means nothing, and who will take the day off?
You have to believe that the players who do the latter are not the players that the Lions will keep around. If you can’t deal with things at their worst, do you deserve to be around when things are at their best?
Let’s see who goes out there and cares on Sunday. Let’s see if the guys who go through the motions are brought back in 2026.
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