2.) Detroit Lions
The Cinderella story for the Detroit Lions came to a big collapse in the NFC championship game, blowing a 17-point lead to the San Francisco 49ers and losing 34-31. However, that is no reason to forget about the unbelievable season the Lions had overall. They won the NFC North division at 12-5, hosted two playoff games, and made it to the conference championship for the first time in 30 years. In addition, they knocked their former quarterback Matt Stafford out of the playoffs in front of a rowdy Detroit crowd. Head coach Dan Campbell deserves a ton of credit for what he has been able to do to turn this organization around.
The Lions had the fifth-highest-scoring offense in the league, which included a powerful running attack between David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs. They also had a defense that forced at least one turnover in all but 4 games all season long. With the passing game, Jared Goff has solidified himself as the quarterback moving forward with valuable weapons around him like Amon-Ra St. Brown and Sam LaPorta. The Lions are going to be a team that will be contenders for the foreseeable future and the Bills are part of that future. Buffalo and Detroit face off in Detroit for the second time in three seasons next year.