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Eric Woodyard
ALLEN PARK, Mich. — David Montgomery says the Detroit Lions are “uninterested in being shut” to profitable a Tremendous Bowl, and he declared the 2025 season as a “12 months of reckoning.”
After a franchise-best 15-win season in 2024, the top-seeded Lions fell wanting their Tremendous Bowl objective with a surprising loss towards the Washington Commanders of their playoff opener.
“All people’s uninterested in being shut,” Montgomery stated Sunday. “It is cool to be shut at first, however you do not wish to get comfy with being shut on a regular basis.
“That is not what you wish to be recognized for, particularly when you’ve got obtained the fellows, you’ve got obtained on this group. You wish to end it, so that is the 12 months for us. The 12 months of the reckoning and the 12 months that we select that we have to end.”
The Lions opened coaching camp Sunday on the Meijer Efficiency Heart with a chip on their shoulder, regardless of coming off back-to-back NFC North titles.
The sting of final season’s disappointing ending — a 45-31 residence loss to Washington within the NFC divisional spherical — nonetheless would not sit properly inside the group, particularly Montgomery, who has massive objectives this upcoming season.
“That is most likely the hungriest that I’ve been as a result of I really feel like lots of people sort of neglect that I am right here within the offense, too,” stated Montgomery, who rushed for 775 yards and 12 touchdowns final season. “So, I am not right here to show anyone mistaken. I am right here to show myself proper and be one of the best teammate that I could be
“However I’ve undoubtedly obtained an enormous chip on my shoulder.”
The Lions say they now share a typical understanding of what it takes to finish the mission in Detroit, as head coach Dan Campbell has emphasised the significance of sacrificing early on to win all of it.
“You do not work for nearly. You’re employed for the entire thing,” stated extensive receiver Kalif Raymond. “I feel on the finish of the day, the groundwork that we lay proper now could be going to find out the small minute particulars that include the virtually that occurred the previous couple of years.”
There’s additionally an added degree of maturity across the group getting into this 12 months that Raymond acknowledged after experiencing the complete constructing course of in Detroit since 2021, when Campbell first arrived.
“It is a mature group,” Raymond stated. “It is cool to look at these guys develop, however extra importantly it is cool to look at these guys change into execs as a result of now they’re vets.
“So, watching them take the take the reins of the youthful guys coming in who have been as soon as younger guys once they got here in … the maturity of the group has been phenomenal.”
The Lions are one among 4 energetic NFL franchises with out a Tremendous Bowl look, together with the Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans. Detroit has the second-shortest odds to win the NFC at ESPN BET, behind the defending Tremendous Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
“I am nonetheless as enthusiastic as ever. I do know these guys are,” Campbell stated. “There is a worth to be paid to get your self again into the dance — again into the match — and that can by no means change.
“If we let that slide in any respect, then we’ll be sitting right here at residence in January, and that is not what we would like.”
