The Detroit Lions’ 2025 season didn’t end the way anyone in Allen Park hoped, but one of the most respected voices in football history isn’t worried at all.
Hall of Fame head coach and NBC analyst Tony Dungy believes the Lions’ step back this past season is not a warning sign, it’s part of a very familiar growth cycle. In fact, he’s seen this movie before. And it ended with deep playoff runs.
Speaking Tuesday at Super Bowl 60, Dungy drew direct parallels between the Lions’ recent stumble and his own experience rebuilding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the late 1990s.
“Absolutely,” Dungy said to the Detroit Free Press when asked if Detroit will be Super Bowl contenders again in 2026. “They’re a good team, a good organization, and Dan Campbell is a good head coach and leader. They’re going to be fine.”
A Step Back Doesn’t Mean the Window Is Closed
Dungy took over a struggling Buccaneers franchise in the mid-1990s and engineered a fast turnaround. Tampa Bay reached the playoffs in his second season, stumbled the following year with a .500 record, then surged forward again — winning the division and eventually reaching the NFC Championship Game.
That brief regression didn’t derail the program. It sharpened it.
Dungy sees the same thing happening in Detroit.
After three straight postseason appearances, the Lions missed the playoffs in 2025. But in Dungy’s eyes, that disappointment could serve as the fuel for another leap forward rather than a signal of decline.
Getting Back to the Lions’ Identity
According to Dungy, Detroit’s biggest offseason priority is simple: get back to its foundation.
For the Lions, that starts with the run game.
Detroit slipped from one of the league’s best rushing teams to the middle of the pack this past season, averaging roughly two dozen fewer rushing yards per game than the year before. Several factors contributed to that decline, including the retirement of Pro Bowl center Frank Ragnow, two inexperienced starters along the interior offensive line, and a midseason change at offensive coordinator.
Dungy noted that he spoke with Dan Campbell earlier in the season, and the message from the Lions’ head coach was clear.
“It starts up front,” Dungy recalled Campbell saying. “The offense and the run game.”
That identity, Dungy believes, temporarily slipped — but it hasn’t been lost.
Confidence in Dan Campbell’s Leadership
Perhaps the strongest endorsement Dungy offered wasn’t about schemes or personnel. It was about leadership.
He spoke highly of Campbell’s ability to keep the locker room aligned and focused, even when things don’t go as planned. That, more than anything, is why Dungy is confident the Lions will respond the right way in 2026.
Good teams don’t avoid adversity, he explained. They learn from it.
And in Dungy’s eyes, Detroit is still very much a good team.
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