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How Detroit Lions' upcoming schedule sets them up for NFL playoff contention in December

Major improvement is the goal.

When Sheila Ford Hamp officially replaced her mother as Detroit Lions owner in June, she repurposed the “meaningful games in December” edict laid down last winter to something less defined and perhaps harder to achieve.

Hamp, rightfully, declined to set a win-loss bar at the time given the “weird” circumstances of the year. But when she vaguely declared “major improvement is the goal” in 2020, she wasn't shrinking her measuring stick.

Anyone who has been in or around the organization in recent years knows the Ford family yearns for a playoff appearance — a home playoff game, really — and considers that a necessary next step in the evolution of the franchise.