The Detroit Lions and their fans are riding pretty high right now, it seems.

Sure, last season ended earlier than expected, given the Lions were a No. 1 seed in the NFC, but 2024 still included a record number of victories, a second straight NFC North title, and a second straight postseason appearance, and a third straight winning record under head coach Dan Campbell.

And, while Campbell and the Lions will have new faces on the coaching staff for 2025 with two new coordinators, as well as some turnover on the offensive line, Detroit likely still is considered a team capable of winning a title.

It wasn’t too long ago, though, that the Lions were also-rans in the midst of navigating droughts that saw Detroit searching for playoff victories (32 years between victories) and division titles (nearly 30 years between titles).

CBS Sports offered a reminder of those times Thursday, in ranking the 25 worst NFL coaching hires of this century. The Lions avoided landing “top” honors — that belongs to Jacksonville’s hire of Urban Meyer for the 2021 season — but they were well-represented, with three coaches landing in the top 10: Marty Mornhinweg (No. 7). Matt Patricia (9), and Rod Marinelli (10).

That trio’s combined record in Detroit: 28-94-1 in nearly eight seaons, combined. That’s 11 fewer regular-season victories than Campbell has in four seasons with the Lions.

Mornhinweg was 5-27 in his two seasons from 2001-02, his only two seasons as a head coach.

“Marty was a trusted offensive voice for icons like Andy Reid, Mike Holmgren and Steve Mariucci, but some of those roles may have been refined thanks to the embarrassment of his time in Detroit,” CBS Sports’ Cody Benjamin writes. “The Lions are ultra-aggressive under Dan Campbell these days, which is a stark contrast to the time Mornhinweg literally opted to kick the ball to his opponent in sudden-death overtime in 2002.”

If Mornhinweg was a “trusted offensive voice,” Patricia was the same on defense, a disciple of Bill Belichick in New England who is now the defensive coordinator at Ohio State. The Lions, however, actually seemed to regress under Patricia from 2018-20, after earning a pair of playoff appearances in four seasons — three in which the Lions won at least nine games — under Jim Caldwell.

” … Patricia inherited a reasonably competitive Lions roster from under the watch of Jim Caldwell,” Benjamin writes, “only to oversee a perceived breakdown in the very culture of the organization, with big-name veterans like future Super Bowl champion Darius Slay clashing with his personality.”

And, while Marinelli ranks behind Mornhinweg and Patricia in the CBS Sports list, he’s the only one of three who has a winless season on his ledger, coming in 2008 to cap a three-year stint as head coach.

“Anytime you literally go winless, there’s plenty of blame to go around,” Benjamin writes, “and Detroit faithful surely pin much of it on former president and CEO Matt Millen, who oversaw the construction of the long-lowly Lions. Marinelli was the man on the sidelines, though, and not even his specialty — defense — looked even remotely special as Motown endured one blowout after another.”

Also on CBS Sports’ list: Former Michigan State head coach Nick Saban (No. 24, with the Miami Dolphins in 2005-06), former Lions quarterback coach Jim Zorn (19, with Washington in 2008-09), Ypsilanti native and Michigan State grad Adam Gase (12, with the New York Jets in 2019-20), who also had stints on the Lions coaching staff; and former Michigan position coach Cam Cameron (3, with the Miami Dolphins in 2007).

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