The excitement around the 2023 Detroit Lions speaks to the history of a franchise that’s had little to cheer about over the past 70 years.
Even though they are among the NFL’s oldest franchises, the Lions might be the most impoverished team from a playoff standpoint. Until the Lions defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 31-23, in the NFC divisional round Sunday, the franchise only one other playoff victory since 1957.
With a mere 12 playoff appearances during that time span, the Lions remain the sole NFC franchise to never appear in a Super Bowl, something they can change with a victory over the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday.
With that in mind, here’s our ranking of the five best teams in Detroit Lions’ franchise history.
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5. 2023 Detroit Lions
Yes, they’re here. This season’s Detroit Lions edge the 1991 Detroit Lions, who featured the greatest player in franchise history, Barry Sanders, at the peak of his powers. That Lions team went 12-4 and won a division title, yet the 2023 team (12-5) is more well-rounded offensively and defensively and has a better point differential. Plus, the quarterback situation greatly favors the 2023 team (Jared Goff vs. Erik Kramer and Rodney Peete). The 1991 team lost to Washington in the NFC title game, 41-10. Anything can happen, but it’s hard to imagine Dan Campbell’s team suffering a similar lopsided fate on Sunday.
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4. 1954 Detroit Lions
The 1954 team could have challenged for the top spot on this list if it had won the NFL championship game. But the Lions got hammered against the Cleveland Browns, 56-10, in a game where Browns quarterback Otto Graham accounted for six touchdowns, three passing and three rushing. Otherwise, the 1954 Lions had a 9-2-1 record and an outstanding +148 point differential.
3. 1957 Detroit Lions
This the last Detroit Lions team to win an NFL championship, their third in six seasons. As the Browns had done to them in 1954, the Lions destroyed Cleveland, 59-14. Tobin Rote threw four TD passes and ran for another score, while the Lions’ defense intercepted five passes. What made this victory even more impressive was that it came against a Brown team with a rookie named Jim Brown at running back. The reason this team ranks behind the other two is that it went 8-4 and only outscored opponents by 20 points all season.
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2. 1953 Detroit Lions
The 1953 team had the best record of the bunch at 10-2 and made the Lions back-to-back NFL champions with a thrilling 17-16 comeback victory over the Cleveland Browns. Down 16-10, the Lions drove the field and scored on Bobby Layne’s 33-yard TD pass to Jim Doran, followed by Doak Walker’s PAT to seal the victory. Layne outdueled Otto Graham, who completed only two of 15 passes for 20 yards and two interceptions. For as good as this team was, only one was more dominant.
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1. 1952 Detroit Lions
The 1952 team narrowly beats out the 1953 team as the best in Detroit Lions history because, despite the 9-3 record, it was more dominant — illustrated by their +152 point differential, the best in franchise history, compared to +66 the following season. They also defeated the Cleveland Browns, 17-7, in the NFL championship game, which featured a 67-yard TD run by Doak Walker. The Lions were NFL champions for the second time in franchise history, with their first title coming in 1935, and it began a run that made the Lions — with future Hall of Famers Jack Christiansen, Lou Creekmur, Yale Lary, Bobby Layne, Joe Schmidt, Dick Stanfel, and Walker — one of the greatest teams of the 1950s.