The Detroit Lions have built a Pro Bowl pipeline in recent seasons, with names like Jared Goff, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Penei Sewell, Aidan Hutchinson and Jack Campbell already getting that recognition.
But even with that list growing, there are still plenty of Lions who haven’t made the trip yet. Looking ahead to the 2026 season, four players stand out as strong candidates to land their first Pro Bowl nod.
Jameson Williams is one of the most intriguing names on that list. Heading into his fifth season, he’s no longer just the blazing-fast target he was when he entered the league.
He has grown into a more complete receiver and earned more trust from the coaching staff because of his consistency. The Alabama product has put together back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons, and he looks ready for another jump in 2026.
As Detroit’s No. 2 option behind Amon-Ra St. Brown, Williams still brings that elite speed element, and his improved hands have made him a much tougher cover.
If he strings together a few big games, his profile could rise fast enough to put him in the Pro Bowl conversation.
On the offensive line, the Lions are betting on Trystan Mays to become their center of the future. Detroit signed him to a three-year deal this offseason after Frank Ragnow’s retirement last year, and the expectation is that Mays will bring the stability the team lacked in 2025.
The Lions see him as a player on the rise, even though he’s still relatively new to both the position and starting in the NFL. He’ll be a key part of the pivot spot up front, and he’s already shown he can handle the job at a high level.
If he makes the leap Detroit is hoping for, he could help power a strong rushing attack for Jahmyr Gibbs, and that kind of production would put him on the radar for honors.
Alim McNeill has already flashed Pro Bowl-level play, but injuries have kept him from getting there. In both 2023 and 2024, he was performing well enough to deserve that kind of attention before knee injuries cut those seasons short.
In 2023, he looked like a Pro Bowl lock before a knee injury sidelined him for four games. The next year, he was on pace again before a torn ACL ended his season.
Now, though, McNeill appears to be in position to finally show what he can do at full strength. He looks healthy, and that matters because explosiveness is such a big part of his game.
Then there’s Brian Joseph, who already has one of the stranger Pro Bowl résumés on the roster. In 2024, he led the NFL in interceptions and earned First Team All-Pro honors, but still ended up as only a Pro Bowl alternate.
Some believe that had something to do with the reputation he developed as a player who sought to injure opponents. His situation is more complicated now because he missed the final 11 games of last season with a knee injury, and there’s still uncertainty about when he’ll be back.
The Lions added safety depth, and Dan Campbell said he’s unsure when Joseph will return. Still, if Joseph gets back to full health, there’s no doubt he can be one of the league’s best safeties again.
If he’s back roaming the back end and attacking the ball, he should be right back in the Pro Bowl mix in 2026.
In Other News...
Lions Suddenly Have Another Core Contract Decision Brewing
The Lions are trying to keep their young core intact while still navigating the reality of a tight salary cap, and that means the front office has more than one big extension conversation on its plate. Jahmyr Gibbs and Sam LaPorta are both in line for significant new deals, a reminder of how quickly Detroits homegrown talent has become expensive to keep.
LaPortas situation may be the more delicate of the two because his contract talks are arriving with more urgency and a market that keeps moving around him. Detroit has no reported deadline on either negotiation, but the timing adds another layer of intrigue for a team that would prefer to settle its biggest priorities before those talks start to spill deeper into the season. [Read more 🡒]
Jared Goff Faces A New Test For His 2026 Ceiling
Jared Goff is headed into 2026 with another new voice shaping the offense, a familiar wrinkle for a quarterback who has already navigated plenty of change in Detroit. Drew Petzing takes over as the latest play-caller, and the setup comes with the usual Lions caveat: the system may shift, but the expectations around Goff do not. He has kept producing through coordinator turnover, earned multiple Pro Bowl nods, and helped steer Detroit to winning seasons and division titles along the way.
The bigger question now is how high the ceiling can stay when the surroundings remain strong but the responsibilities keep changing. Goff is coming off another efficient year and will still have a deep set of weapons to lean on, which is part of why the Lions believe the offense can keep humming. The intrigue is whether this latest adjustment is just another smooth transition or the kind that nudges him into a different tier altogether. [Read more 🡒]
This Lions Ranking Just Exposed A Big 2026 Depth Concern
A ranking of the Lions roster from 30 through 21 does a pretty good job of showing how much turnover this team is trying to absorb heading toward 2026. About half the names in that group are newcomers, and the staffs list is less about locking in a depth chart than it is about mapping out who might matter once camp opens. Some of the players are coming off injuries, others are trying to build on flashes from earlier stops, and a few are simply walking into crowded position battles that will sort themselves out only after the offseason work begins.
The most interesting part for Detroit is how many of those spots are still fluid. Larry Borom entered the conversation as a possible answer at right tackle, but the addition of Blake Miller changes the picture there. Ennis Rakestraw is also back in the mix after missing all of 2025, and the staff sees him as someone who could compete for a starting role with Terrion Arnold no longer in the picture. Add in a safety like Christian Izien, who was brought in to help steady a group dealing with injury concerns, and it is easy to see why this lower tier of the roster might end up telling a bigger story about the Lions than the top of the depth chart. [Read more 🡒]