ALLEN PARK, Mich. — David Montgomery says the Detroit Lions are “uninterested in being shut” to profitable a Tremendous Bowl and declared the 2025 season as a “yr of reckoning.”
After a franchise-best 15-win season in 2024, the top-seeded Lions fell in need of their Tremendous Bowl aim with a stunning loss in opposition to the Washington Commanders of their playoff opener.
“Everyone’s uninterested in being shut,” Montgomery stated Sunday. “It is cool to be shut at first, however you do not wish to get snug with being shut on a regular basis.
“That is not what you wish to be identified for particularly when you realize you have bought the blokes you have bought on this crew. You wish to end it, so that is the yr for us. The yr of the reckoning and the yr that we select that we have to end.”
The Lions opened coaching camp Sunday on the Meijer Efficiency Middle with a chip on their shoulder, regardless of coming off back-to-back NFC North titles.
The sting of final season’s disappointing ending — a 45-31 dwelling loss to Washington within the NFC divisional spherical — nonetheless does not sit effectively inside the group, particularly Montgomery, who has large objectives this upcoming season.
“That is most likely the hungriest that I’ve been as a result of I really feel like lots of people form of neglect that I am right here within the offense, too,” stated Montgomery, who rushed for 775 yards and 12 touchdowns final season. “So, I am not right here to show anyone incorrect, I am right here to show myself proper and be one of the best teammate that I could be
“However I’ve undoubtedly bought a giant chip on my shoulder.”
The Lions say they now share a typical understanding of what it takes to finish the mission in Detroit, as head coach Dan Campbell has emphasised the significance of sacrificing early on to win all of it.
“You do not work for nearly. You’re employed for the entire thing,” broad receiver Kalif Raymond stated. “I feel on the finish of the day, the groundwork that we lay proper now could be gonna decide the small minute particulars that include the just about that occurred the previous few years.”
There’s additionally an added degree of maturity across the group coming into this yr that Raymond acknowledged after experiencing your complete constructing course of in Detroit since 2021, when Campbell first arrived.
“It is a mature crew,” Raymond stated. “It is cool to look at these guys develop, however extra importantly it is cool to look at these guys turn into execs as a result of now they’re vets.
“So, watching them take the take the reins of the youthful guys coming in who had been as soon as younger guys after they got here in … the maturity of the crew has been phenomenal.”
The Lions are one among 4 energetic NFL franchises with no Tremendous Bowl look, together with the Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans. Detroit has the second-shortest odds to win the NFC at ESPN BET, behind the defending Tremendous Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
“I am nonetheless as enthusiastic as ever. I do know these guys are,” Campbell stated. “There is a worth to be paid to get your self again into the dance — again into the event — and that can by no means change.
“If we let that slide in any respect, then we will be sitting right here at dwelling in January, and that is not what we would like.”