Approaching the NFL trade deadline this time last year, the Detroit Lions were in familiar territory. Same old Lions. Same old failure. Same old merry go round of rebooting, retooling, rebuilding and regurgitating a plea for patience.
Team owner Sheila Ford Hamp met with reporters after a 1-5 start and reiterated her faith in a process that once again appeared to be on the cusp of catastrophic failure. The team was coming off back-to-back pummelings at the hands of the New England Patriots and Dallas Cowboys. Local media was pointing out that the regime of head coach Dan Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes had a nearly identical overall record to the dark ages beginnings of former head coach Marty Mornhinweg and and former GM Matt Millen.