NFL Power Rankings: ESPN ranks Detroit Lions at No. 19

Lions coming off 9-win 2016 season

DETROIT – The Detroit Lions have a lot to prove, especially to ESPN.

ESPN released their post preseason Week 1 power rankings, and the Detroit Lions are ranked No. 19 in the league, which is actually down four spots from their last rankings.

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Here's what they wrote:

A quiet offseason has the 2017 Lions looking very much like the 2016 Lions. That's not necessarily a bad thing for a team that made the playoffs, but the Lions did get outscored last season (358-346). It remains to be seen if bigger changes from the draft and free agency may have helped.

The Lions are coming off a 9-7 season, in which they made the playoffs but lost in the first round to Seattle.

We asked ClickOnDetroit readers to give us their predictions for the 2017 Detroit Lions season and they are optimistic.

We received 1,137 reader predictions, of which 260 said the Lions will go 10-6 this season. That's about 23 percent who believe the Lions will improve from a 9-7 record this past season to 10-6 this year. About 14 percent said the Lions will go 9-7 again and about 13 percent said they will go 11-5.

 


About the Authors:

Ken Haddad has proudly been with WDIV/ClickOnDetroit since 2013. He also authors the Morning Report Newsletter and various other newsletters, and helps lead the WDIV Insider team. He's a big sports fan and is constantly sipping Lions Kool-Aid.