The Detroit Lions are widely expected to be one of the better teams in the NFL after a 2023 campaign in which they won the division with a 12-5 record before making a run to the NFC Championship Game.
One of the many people who are high on the Lions going into the upcoming 2024 season is FOX Sports Radio host Colin Cowherd, who was the Lions ranked as the third-best team in the league.
The only teams ranked ahead of the Lions on Cowherd's list are the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens, making the Lions Cowherd's top team in the NFC.
Where Cowherd's list goes off the rails is at No. 4, where he has the Los Angeles Rams. Making that more absurd is the fact that the Rams are ranked ahead of last year's NFC champions, the San Francisco 49ers.
Would you change anything? pic.twitter.com/lYmjNBSQFL
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) April 30, 2024
At the very least, the 49ers should be in the top four, but one can certainly make an argument for them to be No. 2. If I was to rearrange Cowherd's list, I'd have it Chiefs, 49ers, Lions and Ravens from No. 1 to No. 4.
Whatever the case may be, this is just another example of the huge expectations the Lions have in 2024. Detroit has legit Super Bowl aspirations , something owner Sheila Ford Hamp made clear last month.
"As coach Campbell said at the end of last season, that was phase one," Ford Hamp said during the team's uniform unveiling last month. "The 2024 season is phase two. One of the goals for the 2024 season is, at the end of the season, we will be hoisting the trophy."