With just one game remaining, the Detroit Lions’ 2025 season is effectively finished. Any hopes of making the playoffs are gone, and attention has already shifted to figuring out how a year that began with so much optimism unraveled so badly.

There were plenty of painful moments along the way. Watching Green Bay struggle at Lambeau is always enjoyable, but seeing Baltimore steamroll Detroit so effortlessly was tough to stomach.

Even more frustrating is the fact that if the Lions had managed to beat just one of two very beatable teams—the Steelers or the Vikings—their postseason chances would still be alive. Win both, and they’d actually be in a playoff spot right now.

“Disappointing” almost feels too mild to describe how this season played out, but for the sake of discussion, it works well enough for today’s question:
What has been the most disappointing aspect of the Lions’ 2025 season?

For me, it’s the steady decline of the offense as the year went on.
Some early struggles were expected. A new offensive coordinator, combined with losing key offensive linemen like Frank Ragnow and Kevin Zeitler, made a slow start understandable.

That sluggish Week 1 performance against Green Bay—who turned out to have a respectable defense—wasn’t overly alarming. Then came an offensive explosion. Detroit torched the Bears for 52 points, followed by big performances against the Ravens (38), Browns (34), and Bengals (37). At that point, it looked like the offense had found its footing.

That momentum didn’t last.
The offense sputtered over the next several weeks, leading to a midseason play-calling change. While there was a short-lived spark against Washington, the Lions were overwhelmed by Philadelphia’s defense. There were flashes of competence against the Packers and Cowboys and even a strong half against the Rams, but the last two games in particular have been downright ugly.

A major contributor to this collapse has been a running game that, on the surface, appears fine. Box scores don’t raise any red flags. Carry totals are lower, which makes sense given how often Detroit played from behind, and the yards-per-carry average looks similar to past seasons.
But that surface-level view is misleading.

Much of the Lions’ rushing production came from a handful of explosive plays early in the season. On a play-to-play basis, the run game has been far less effective than last year. When looking at success rate—a better indicator of consistency—the drop-off is significant. Detroit leads the league with nine runs of 30 yards or more, but if you remove those big plays, the rushing efficiency falls off a cliff.

The expectation was that the offense would improve as the season progressed. The offensive line was supposed to gel, John Morton would grow more comfortable in his role, and under Dan Campbell, the Lions traditionally play their best football late in the year.

Instead, the opposite happened.
Over the past three games, Detroit has been completely outmatched up front. They’ve managed just 153 rushing yards on 63 attempts—an abysmal 2.4 yards per carry. During that stretch, they rank last in the NFL in rushing EPA and near the bottom in success rate. That’s not just poor performance; it’s a total abandonment of what this offense is supposed to be.

Injuries along the offensive line and at tight end have certainly played a role, but strong teams find ways to adapt. Effective coaching staffs make adjustments.

Detroit failed to do either, and that failure—especially at the end of the season when things should be coming together—is what makes this year so frustrating.
That’s why the offensive regression stands out as the biggest letdown of the 2025 Lions season.