ESPN's Bill Barnwell has released his rankings of the best wide receiver, running back, and tight end groups in the NFL ahead of the 2025 season.
Barnwell does this exercise each season, and he has a specific criteria for assembling these lists - he weighs injuries and suspensions from previous seasons, only focuses on performance expected for 2025, and wide receivers earn more weight than running backs and tight ends.
With that all kept in mind, Detroit Lions fans should be pretty thrilled to see that, on the list, the team lands at 2nd best in the NFL. The only team that has them beat is the Philadelphia Eagles, last year's Super Bowl champion.
This is a huge boost for the Lions' offense, which has been the beneficiary of continuity thanks to hitting on major draftees and managing to get the most out of quarterback Jared Goff, as well.
Barnwell names Lions offense second best in NFL ahead of 2025 season
Barnwell praises the Lions' wide receiving corp led by Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams, as well as the one-two punch featured in the backfield with Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery. But, he showers much-deserved praise on the teams' underrated tight end in Sam LaPorta.
"Then there's Sam LaPorta, whose "disappointing" season (726 yards, seven touchdowns) was still good enough to finish as the sixth-best tight end in fantasy football. His target volume suffered from the ascension of Williams, as he mustered only about 16% of Detroit's targets in the passing game, which is just below what Pat Freiermuth had in Pittsburgh. I'm putting that more on the standouts around LaPorta than an inability to get open, as the 24-year-old finished 28th in receiver score."
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The only knock Barnwell mentions is that the team lost, of course, Ben Johnson. The former offensive coordinator is now sharing his skills with the Lions' rival in the Chicago Bears. John Morton has since taken over, and it isn't anticipated that much will change under him as he calls the shots for Goff and the offense this year.
If the team can manage health for their offense for much of this season, and can survive the loss of Frank Ragnow at center, then Barnwell's assessment of the Lions potentially being the true number one offense ahead of 2025 can come to fruition.
It feels like a no-brainer to assume this about Detroit this season, but this is just another ranking that can allow us to reiterate that the Lions are a Super Bowl-caliber club.
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