[Ruhskins]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

Well, Detroit has many fewer quality pieces than either Miami or Atlanta did this year. If they fill all the major holes as effectively as those other teams did, they are still only a 5-6 win team.

The Lions would have to find a way to add more great, talented players, particularly on the defensive side, to push past 8 wins next year. And that type of talent can be found in the free agent market, via trade, or through the draft, but it's still very hard to get no matter what.

Miami got Pennington, and Atlanta got Ryan, but for the most part the critical pieces (R. Brown, White, Norwood, Camarillo, Fasano, Porter, Martin) were already part of those losing teams. The Lions have Calvin Johnson, and not much else.

I put the Dolphin example as the extreme end of the spectrum...will the Lions go to the playoffs next year? No. While it is true that winning 1 game is an improvement, if Schwartz brings talent to the team's defense, and if they get a good QB (although the pool is thin), they could win a couple of games, heck maybe even 8 games.