The Detroit Lions came into the 2025 season with high hopes and a roster that looked ready to take the next step. But as the calendar flipped to January, they found themselves on the outside looking in. A 9-8 finish wasn’t enough to secure a playoff berth, and the reasons why are as much about who wasn’t on the field as what happened on it.
Down the stretch, the Lions were a team battling more than just their opponents-they were battling attrition. Key injuries, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, left Detroit scrambling to fill holes with depth players who were thrust into starting roles.
The result? A defense that couldn’t get the stops it needed in crucial moments.
Close games slipped through their fingers, and with them, a shot at the postseason.
But inside the locker room, there’s no sense of panic-just a belief that the foundation is solid, and the setbacks were more about circumstance than system. Defensive cornerstone Aidan Hutchinson offered that perspective when he joined Sunday NFL Countdown, breaking down what went wrong from the inside.
“As a player, it really felt like in those critical games, we weren’t playing complementary football,” Hutchinson said. “It’s really on all three phases-offense, defense, special teams. It was a collective thing where little parts were letting us down.”
That’s the kind of insight you’d expect from a leader who sees the bigger picture. The Lions didn’t fall apart-they just didn’t come together when it mattered most.
And at 9-8, they were close. Just not close enough.
Hutchinson pointed to health as a major factor, especially on defense. The secondary, in particular, was hit hard. And in today’s NFL, where passing attacks are more lethal than ever, losing your back-end playmakers can be a game-changer-in the wrong direction.
“To me, defensively, I think the key to improvement is getting healthy,” Hutchinson said. “Get our secondary healthy. Get all those guys back, and I really think we’re going to have a complete defense.”
That’s a fair point. The Lions were without several key contributors late in the year, including safeties Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch. Both have uncertain outlooks heading into 2026, but if they return at full strength-and if rookie cornerback Terrion Arnold continues to develop-this unit could take a big leap forward.
General manager Brad Holmes echoed Hutchinson’s sentiment, acknowledging that the rash of injuries forced the Lions to lean on players who were never supposed to carry that kind of load.
“When you lose some impact players as we did, you’re going to have some hurdles,” Holmes said. “A lot of those guys we brought in to be quality depth, and they had to play large roles and be starters.”
That shift in personnel came with consequences. Holmes pointed to the uptick in explosive plays allowed in the passing game-a direct result of having to shuffle the secondary.
But it wasn’t just the back end. Holmes also highlighted issues up front that surfaced late in the season, especially against the run.
“Some of the run defense stuff, that was just uncharacteristic,” Holmes said. “We’ve normally been relatively very good in run defense, and it just was not clicking. It was not consistent.”
That inconsistency is something the Lions brass plans to address this offseason. Holmes made it clear that everything’s on the table-players, scheme, and structure. He and head coach Dan Campbell will be combing through the tape and the roster to figure out where the cracks formed and how to seal them.
Still, this doesn’t feel like a team in need of a teardown. The Lions have a young, talented core and a culture that’s been steadily building under Campbell’s leadership. Hutchinson’s message is one of belief-not in a miracle fix, but in the team they already have.
“We ended up 9-8, but it wasn’t enough to get us in,” Hutchinson said. “That was unfortunate, but we’re all looking forward to next year.”
And that’s the tone coming out of Detroit-disappointment, yes, but also optimism. If they can stay healthy and tighten up the fundamentals, the Lions don’t need a reinvention.
They just need to find those inches Hutchinson talked about. Because in the NFL, that’s often the difference between watching the playoffs and playing in them.