Two NFL Analysts Can’t Agree on Lions Offense, and One Changed His Mind
The Detroit Lions offense has been a top-five scoring unit for four consecutive seasons. Then 2025 happened. Now some people have doubts, and that led to a fascinating debate this week on The Athletic Football Show podcast that perfectly captures where this team sits heading into 2026.
Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen ranked NFC teams by their offensive supporting casts, meaning everything except the quarterback. When they got to the Lions, the wheels came off their agreement. Mays had Detroit ninth out of 16 NFC teams. Klassen had them third.
The disagreement centered on new offensive coordinator Drew Petzing, which tells you everything about the uncertainty swirling around this offense.
The Case for Optimism
Klassen made the argument that Lions fans desperately want to believe: “I think we are significantly overcorrecting on how ‘bad’ last year was. Think about all the negative air we spent talking about the Lions, they were still a top-10 offense by any metric. I think this team is still really good.”
He’s not wrong. The Lions could still generate explosive plays with the best of them in 2025. The problem was down-to-down efficiency, which he attributed to play-calling questions and offensive line health issues.
His vision for 2026? Petzing raises the floor while the talent raises the ceiling. “If we take that and think about what we know of the ceiling of the offense with Jahmyr Gibbs being as explosive as anybody, Amon-Ra St. Brown being a really good wide receiver, Sam LaPorta being one of the most explosive tight ends in the league, Jameson Williams being about as good as an ancillary pieces you can get in terms of explosive plays, to me, it’s not that hard for me to envision a world where they’re like the fifth-best offense again.”
The Case for Caution
Mays initially grouped the Lions with other teams dealing with first-year play-callers, which is fair. Coordinator changes are inherently risky, especially when you’re coming off a disappointing season.
But here’s the thing about this debate: Mays changed his mind. After thinking it over, he moved closer to Klassen’s position, acknowledging he undersold what they saw from Petzing, the offensive line’s path to improvement, and the skill player quality.
He’d still have the Rams, Bears, and 49ers as his top three, but would put the Lions “in the mix right after that.”
The Real Question
This entire debate boils down to one thing: Can Drew Petzing be the play-caller this offense needs? Klassen admitted he doesn’t know if Petzing is great or if he’ll be as good as they hoped after what they saw with the Cardinals in 2024. But he believes Petzing can raise the floor.
For a Lions team with this much talent, raising the floor might be exactly what they need. The explosiveness is there. The weapons are there. If the efficiency follows, this offense could be dangerous again.
Are you buying the optimism or staying cautious until you see it on the field? Let us know where you stand in the comments below.
I’m with Klassen on this one. Yeah last year was frustrating but we still had a legit offense even when things weren’t clicking. Petzing might be the missing piece we need to get back to that top 5 level. The talent around Jared is ridiculous – if he can just manage the game plan better, we’re looking at something special.
I want to believe the optimism I really do, but coordinator changes are scary and we’ve seen it go wrong before. I’m not saying Petzing will be bad, just that we need to actually see it work on the field before we’re penciling ourselves in as a top 5 offense again. Prove it first, celebrate after.
Look, I’ve been watching this team through some truly dark times, and what Campbell and Holmes have built is nothing like what we suffered through for years. Even with last season’s frustrations, the foundation is solid. Having actual stability at coordinator is something we never had back in the day, so I trust they made the right move with Petzing.
The fact that even skeptical analysts are warming up to the Lions shows something. We have the weapons, we have the QB, and now we hopefully have better play calling. Campbell doesn’t hire dummies – if he brought in Petzing, he sees something there. I’m buying in.