[jwplayer FaLmXAOx-ThvAeFxT]
Pro Football Focus has been high on the Detroit Lions all offseason and now that they are looking ahead to the regular season they believe “the Lions are who you should bet on to win the NFC North”.
In the latest PFF Forecast podcast episode, the crew was discussing their thoughts on the NFC North division, and at the 29-minute mark, they turned their focus on the Lions.
“Detroit, you know, I know that Matt Patricia has some warts obviously and he’s has a difficult time of it, but look at this team and I think there are less question marks about this team than there are of any team in the division.
“Matthew Stafford’s health is one of them but it was kinda fluky injury, right? He has not been, you know, injured — other than his first couple of years in the league and last season — he hasn’t particularly injury-prone. They have a trio of receivers that I think are as good as any in the NFL. And on defense, they go ahead and they get Jamie Collins, they get Desmond Trufant, they get Danny Shelton, Jayron Kearse a former Viking, Reggie Ragland a former Chief.
“I think that this team has a much better shot of competing for this division than anybody is giving them credit for.”
The Lions are who you should bet on to win the NFC North pic.twitter.com/FyQdnZRFPV
— PFF (@PFF) June 26, 2020
They would go on to discuss how the Lions win totals are being under projected and spent some time comparing the Lions to the Chicago Bears, including comparing them player for player:
“I laugh at this. Matt Stafford is dramatically better as a quarterback than either of the guys Chicago can trot out there. Kenny Golladay is awesome, Marvin Jones is really good, you have Danny Amendola in the slot. Their defense, yeah I know they got rid of Darius Slay, (but) they brought in (Desmond) Trufant, they drafted (Jeff) Okudah and Julain Okwara is a guy that I think will be a value where they got him — and they added Trey Flowers last year (and) Justin Coleman.”
They would wrap up the segment talking about taking Detroit in several prop bets, including winning over six and a half games, making the playoffs, and winning the division, calling them “one of the more intriguing underdogs this year” and noting that this team has “all the earmarks of a team who can go from worst to first”.