‘We Still Have A Great Nucleus’

Barry Sanders is impressed by the Detroit Lions’ recent success in the Dan Campbell era.

Although the Lions had a disappointing finish to last season after losing their first playoff game against the Washington Commanders, their recent two-year run has been their most successful stretch since the start of the Super Bowl era.

The Lions finished with an NFL and franchise-best 15-2 record and advanced to the Conference Championship Game in 2023 after winning their first postseason game since 1991 — when Sanders was in his third year in Detroit.

 ”Absolutely, because I think even though there’s just been two playoff runs, before that we saw improvement,” says Sanders in a one-on-one interview when asked if he’s been impressed by this golden era of Lions football. “You look at the season before we made the playoffs and we go into Green Bay and beat Aaron Rogers and we won nine games.  you could see that that team was building towards something.”

The Lions have the most wins of any NFL team over the past two seasons with 27 total victories. That’s more than the Kansas City Chiefs (26) who have been to the past three Super Bowls. After entering the playoffs as many peoples’ pick to win the Super Bowl, Detroit lost at home to the wild card Commanders.

As disappointing as their finish to the season was, the Lions are built to be Super Bowl contenders for the next several years. They have a young nucleus led by quarterback Jared Goff and wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown along with potential Defensive Player of the Year Aidan Hutchinson, who was lost for most of last season due to an injury.

 ”When you look at NFC Football over the last handful of years, the Lions have played as well as anyone, maybe with the exception of the Eagles,” says Sanders. “We’re right there in the conversation.”

It’s worth mentioning that the Lions — in the Super Bowl era — have never been a winning product. Prior to Sanders’ arrival in 1989, Detroit had just three playoff appearances since 1958. They didn’t win a playoff game after winning the 1957 NFL Championship until 1991.

Sanders was able to catapult many mediocre teams into the playoffs due to his tremendous play — he had posted four straight 1,500-yard seasons — and led the Lions to five playoff appearances in his 10 seasons in Detroit. However, they won just one playoff game and that lack of team success played a role in Sanders retiring at the age of 30.

Between 1999 and 2022, the Lions made four playoff appearances with zero postseason wins. In other words, the Lions are experiencing unprecedented success and they’re not going anywhere anytime soon as a contender.

Their playoff shortcomings in recent years will only help make them better as they aim to win the first Super Bowl in franchise history.

  ”Winning the division last year and having a first round bye, that’s what you dream of, right? We weren’t able to take full advantage of that,” says Sanders. “But that’s still something that you want. That’s still a great advantage to have to be able to put yourself in that position. That means you’re that much closer to winning a Super Bowl, and the next time you’re in that position, you understand more what’s at stake. If you’ve never been in that position, you don’t really understand it.”

Sanders makes sure to mention how Detroit returns its “nucleus” in 2025, which means the Lions should again be one of the NFC’s top contenders.

 ”We still have a great nucleus,” says Sanders. “We still have a great coach in coach Campbell. We still have a lot of the same people in the building. We lost some valuable coaching in our offensive coordinator (Ben Johnson) and we understand that. But that’s a part of this game. We still have the main ingredient, which is the head coach and the players.”

Barry Sanders on Why He’s Partnering With Sleep Number

The 56-year-old Sanders is speaking on behalf of his partnership with Sleep Number. The partnership is notable because Sanders has dealt with sleep apnea, which is a health disorder that sees one’s breathing start and stop throughout the night. Sleep Number is releasing a new health app that helps people better understand their sleeping patterns.

Many sleep apnea cases go undiagnosed — something that Sanders wants to change.

 ”They’re doing a wonderful service and job and just helping people sleep better and detect things like sleep apnea,” says Sanders. “They have an app called Breathe IQ where it’ll record your snoring. You can see where in your throat the snore is coming from and any kind of breathing irregularities.

“It’ll connect you to a virtual care clinic where you can talk to someone in more detail if some of these things relate to you,” Sanders continues to say. “There’s so many people that snore — over a hundred million people — and so many of those cases go undiagnosed.”