Year in Review/Free Agency Preview:

QB: 2025 fantasy leader QB Jared Goff 4564 passing yards, 34 TD, 8 INT

Goff almost matched his numbers from 2024 despite the loss of Ben Johnson. The Lions were hunting for a new offensive coordinator after things didn’t work out with John Morton. Remember Dan Campbell took over play calling midway through the season. They interviewed several candidates, including former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel who would have been the most intriguing choice. They ended up hiring former Cardinals OC Drew Petzing. Backup QB Kyle Allen is a free agent. Goff didn’t miss any time so Allen never played. I suppose they could bring him back. Goff has a bloated cap number for 2026 so they will probably look to restructure his contract to lower the cap hit.

RB: 2025 fantasy leaders RB Jahmyr Gibbs 1839 total yards, 18 TD, RB David Montgomery 908 total yards, 8 TD.

Gibbs met expectations as a top fantasy pick. Montgomery saw his numbers drop a bit. In my report last February I wondered if their workload would shift from 50/50 to more of a 65/35 split and that’s pretty much what happened. There are rumblings that Montgomery isn’t happy about the reduced role. He is a candidate to get traded, although I don’t think they would get much in return for a running back entering his 8th year with a fairly big contract. It would make more sense to keep him in my opinion. Maybe if they view it as more of a salary dump they would go ahead and trade him and then try to find a new bruising back to partner with Gibbs. Actually, they would never do this but what could you get for Gibbs on the trade market? Just something I was thinking about when you see how he didn’t produce against some of the tougher opponents If you traded Gibbs for picks instead of giving him a big extension, and used those picks to help rebuild the offensive line, well like I said that won’t happen. There are no pending free agents at this position.

WR/TE: 2025 fantasy leaders WR Amon-Ra St. Brown 1401 receiving yards, 11 TD, WR Jameson Williams 1117 receiving yards, 7 TD, TE Sam LaPorta 489 yards, 3 TD, WR Isaac TeSlaa 239 yards, 6 TD.

Another big season from St. Brown. If you drafted him you were certainly happy with those numbers. Williams saw his numbers improve a bit from 2024 but it feels like Goff and he could connect on a few more deep shots. LaPorta had back surgery and everyone is hoping he will be back to 100% for training camp. I think one of the first reactions when the Lions hired Petzing was to look at the huge numbers Trey McBride put up with Arizona, and could that translate to LaPorta? Perhaps, but the Lions clearly will still have many good players to spread the ball around to. TeSlaa carved out a role as a red zone threat. He should improve but with the other weapons on this team his target share isn’t likely to go way up anytime soon. WR Kalif Raymond will be a free agent. He has value as a backup receiver and return man but with a tricky cap situation the Lions might have to let him go. There are two backup tight ends set to be free agents in TE Shane Zylstra and TE Anthony Firkser. The Lions were depleted by injuries at tight end so these guys played at the end of the season. Maybe Zylstra returns to compete for the 3rd tight end spot.

D, K, ST: The Lions have most of their significant players on offense locked up but there are a lot of pending free agents on defense. It is very unlikely the Lions use the franchise tag because they have already locked up so many guys to long term deals and the guys they have hitting free agency aren’t top tier players. But it’s the sheer quantity of free agents on defense that took me by surprise. There will be some work to do here. If Maxx Crosby is really on the trade block the Lions will be mentioned but it’s probably not that realistic.

Other notes:

2026 opponents:

Home: CHI, GB, MIN, TB, NO, NE, NYJ, NYG, TEN

Road: CHI, GB, MIN, CAR, ATL, BUF, MIA, ARI

The Lions along with the rest of the NFC North will play the NFC South and AFC East in 2026. Even though the Lions went 9-8, they technically finished last in the NFC North as they lost the tiebreaker with the Vikings. So they get fellow last place teams NYG, TEN, and ARI as their three position based games and you will hear talk about the last place schedule throughout the offseason. Many think that could be a factor for the Lions to return to the playoffs in 2026 and it could be a slight boost for fantasy numbers as well. It’s not official yet but everyone expects one of the home games to end up as an international game.

The Lions will draft 17th in the first round of the draft. Offensive line is the primary need at this point, especially if Taylor Decker retires. With free agency coming first, we could get a little more clarity on their needs in the coming weeks. And of course we have many mock drafts to come.

I will be back next month as we dive into free agency and any other news.

End.