SAN FRANCISCO — Tony Dungy took over a downtrodden Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise three decades ago and engineered a quick turnaround, complete with a playoff appearance in his second season as coach.
The Bucs missed the playoffs with a .500 record in Dungy’s third season, but that regression was short-lived – they won the division a year later.
Dungy said he sees parallels to the step back his team took in 1998 and what happened to the Detroit Lions this fall. And after they missed the postseason for the first time in three years, the NBC analyst and Hall of Fame coach said, there’s no doubt in his mind the Lions will be Super Bowl contenders again in 2026.
“Oh, absolutely,” the Jackson native and Hall of Fame coach said Tuesday, Feb. 3, at Super Bowl 60. “We got going, we made the playoffs in ’97, we didn’t make the playoffs in ’98 and there was disappointment and we refocused. [In] ’99, we went to the NFC championship game and we had three playoff teams after that ’98 disappointment. And I think that’s going to happen with the Lions. They’re a good team, they’re a good organization. Dan Campbell is a good head coach and leader. They’re going to be fine.”
Dungy said the first order of business for the Lions this offseason should be “to get back to their foundation and their mentality” of running the ball.
The Lions slipped from sixth in the NFL in rushing in 2024 to 14th this season and averaged about 26 fewer rushing yards per game.
They lost Pro Bowl center Frank Ragnow to retirement last spring, relied on two first-year starters at guard and changed offensive play callers at midseason as they struggled to replicate the success they had with Ben Johnson as offensive coordinator.
“Dan Campbell told me, I interviewed him early in the year and he said to me, ‘It starts up front, the offense and the run game,’” Dungy said. “And I think they got away from that a little bit and I think they’ll get back to that and I think they’re going to be fine.”
NBC analyst Devin McCourty said the Lions have significant issues to address this offseason if they’re going to contend for next year’s Super Bowl, and he compared this year’s drop to what he experienced with the New England Patriots during his 13 seasons as a player.
The Patriots won the Super Bowl in 2007, lost Tom Brady to a knee injury the next year then failed to advance past the divisional round of the playoffs the next two years as they struggled to replace offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and defensive coordinator Dean Pees.
New England experienced a similar dropoff in 2018-19 after defensive coordinators Matt Patricia and Brian Flores left for head coaching jobs in back-to-back seasons. The Lions hired Patricia in February 2018.
The Lions had new coordinators on both sides of the ball this season, and will have a new offense in 2026 after they hired Drew Petzing to replace John Morton as offensive play-caller.
The nucleus of their roster remains intact from the team that won 15 games in 2024.
“I think what they went through is real,” McCourty said. “I’ve played in New England where we’ve lost [coordinators] and that just creates so much unknown. The next guy that comes in, Brian Flores moved up, he didn’t call the defense the same way Matt Patricia called it. Yes, it was a lot of the same things, it was a little different. So, all of those things, they impact your team.”
Chris Simms, who played six NFL seasons for three teams and briefly coached with the Patriots, said he’s a fan of Petzing and what his hire means for the Lions offense.
Petzing spent the past three seasons calling plays for the Arizona Cardinals and oversaw one of the best rushing attacks in the NFL in 2023-24 before injuries impacted the team this year.
“I do like Drew, I really do,” Simms said. “I think Drew was in a spot where he didn’t have some of the pieces in Arizona to run the things that he wanted to run, but when I would watch them on film I’d go, ‘Oooh, I kind of like these ideas. He’s got some creativity.’ Him with Dan I think’s going to be a good combination.”
Simms, who now works for NBC, said the Lions have holes to fill at center, defensive end and cornerback, but he, too, expects the team to be back in the Super Bowl mix despite what should be a strong NFC North in 2026.
The Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears made the playoffs this season, and the Lions went 0-2 against the Minnesota Vikings.
“Yeah, gosh,” Simms said. “The Lions, there’s not a whole there (to fix). Their offense wasn’t quite as creative missing Ben, but I don’t look at the offensive side of the ball a whole lot and go, ‘Ooh, there’s holes here, holes there.’ I think the defense was more concerning this year than the offense, that’s for sure. I do think there’s probably you need another difference maker on the D-line. It can’t just be Aidan Hutchinson. … But it’s not far off, as you know.”
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Analysts expect 2026 Detroit Lions rebound: ‘They’re going to be fine’
Reporting by Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
