The Detroit Lions are in rebuild mode, as they come out of a difficult season that saw the team with a 9-8 record and at the bottom spot in the NFC North. But, the Lions are known for rebounding, and on Monday, January 26, the team made a decision about the franchise’s future to shape it for the 2026-27 season.
Heading into the upcoming season, the No. 1 priority for the Detroit Lions is to shape up their offense. The team parted ways with their offensive coordinator John Morton on January 6, following his first year with the franchise, and they’ve already replaced Morton with former Arizona Cardinals offensive Drew Petzing as their offensive coordinator.
That move was controversial itself, but now, the Detroit Lions have made yet another move that’s drawing raised eyebrows. This move has to do with their offense.
Detroit Lions head coach pointed to the franchise’s need to strengthen their offense after the team’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Christmas day. “The story of that game was six turnovers. Can’t turn the ball over six times and win in this league,” he said. “You know, defense did some really good things, getting stop after stop. Offensively, I thought we played hard. We just did not, you turn the ball over that many times, it’s going to hurt. So that’s what got us.”
Detroit Lions Move Gets Pushback
On Monday, January 26, football reporter Tom Pelissero shared the news that the Detroit Lions are hiring former New York Giants interim coach Mike Kafka for a role on their offensive staff.
“Former Giants interim coach Mike Kafka is joining the Lions in a high-ranking offensive staff role, per sources,” Pelissero stated on X. “Kafka, 38, has been a finalist for multiple head coaching jobs in recent years. Now, an opportunity to learn from one of the best with Dan Campbell in Detroit.”
Now, what’s wrong with this picture? There’s the little point that the New York Giants were 4-13 for the 2025-26 season. Almost as bad as the Cardinals at 3-14.
So, the Lions are hiring people coming from franchises with worse records than Detroit. Is that really going to help?
Followers were quick to push back on the hire. “They’re tanking for someone alright,” one follower said on X. Another noted that the Lions “hired two people from two terrible systems.” One more added, “2023 really was the Detroit Lions best shot.”
Select Followers Support Detroit Lions’ Decision
Not all of the comments were negative, though. One follower wrote, “I like this move. He was cooking us when we played this season.” Another said, “Kafka finally lands in a spot where he can really grow under Campbell. Detroit just keeps building a murderer’s row of offensive minds. Smart move by both sides.”
Campbell wants to win, as he explained during the season, stating, “Losing is very disappointing. Losing. I hate losing. We do. But look, I mean some of these things that come up, the efforts there. It’s just boy, we are not, we’re just a little off here. And it’s costing us significantly. Just there again, too many turnovers. That’s what really got us, man. Just couldn’t overcome it.”
So, with these two new hires in place, things will be different for the Detroit Lions in the 2026-27 season. But, we’ll have to see if it’s a good different.
Dak Prescott’s 10-year stats are eerily close to those of a soon-to-be Hall of Famer
It’s been several weeks since the Dallas Cowboys’ 2025 season came to a close, and it’s still a bit frustrating to think about how Matt Eberflus’ dreadful defensive unit effectively wasted one of the best overall seasons of Dak Prescott’s career.
While Prescott helped America’s Team rank second in the NFL in total yards per game (391.9) and seventh in scoring (27.7) by completing 67.3 percent of his passes for 4,552 yards (the second-highest total of his career and the third-most in the league in 2025) with 30 touchdowns (the fourth-most in the NFL), the Dallas defense cost the Cowboys several wins by ranking 30th in total yards allowed, giving up 377.0 per contest, and dead last in scoring, surrendering 30.1 points per game. But what’s done is done, right?
The 2025 campaign, as hard as it may be to believe, marked Prescott’s 10th professional season since being taken by Dallas in the fourth round of the 2016 draft with the 135th overall pick. As such, it’s hard not to reflect on what Dak has done from an overall standpoint over the last decade.
And when studying his 10-year stats, we came across an interesting comparison, as Prescott’s numbers are eerily similar to those from the first 10 years of the career of a quarterback who will undoubtedly soon be named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026, that being none other than Drew Brees.
Dak Prescott’s 10-year numbers are very similar to what Drew Brees did in the first decade of his career
Given everything he did during his 15-year run with the New Orleans Saints, it’s often easy to forget that Brees spent the first five years of his NFL career with the then-San Diego Chargers, who took the Purdue alum with the first pick of the second round of the 2001 draft at No. 32 overall. Remember, there were only 31 teams then, as the Houston Texans didn’t begin play until 2002.
As mentioned, Brees played five seasons for the Bolts, joining the Saints as a free agent ahead of the 2006 season and remaining in New Orleans until his retirement following the 2020 campaign.
Now, when comparing the two quarterbacks, one could easily point to the fact that while Prescott started as a rookie after Tony Romo went down with an injury, Brees was the backup to Doug Flutie in his first year and didn’t make his first start until 2002.
However, given some of the long-lasting injuries Dak has sustained, the number of games played by both in their first 10 years nearly match up, as Prescott has played 139 regular-season contests in his first decade, while Brees played 138 in his first 10 years, starting all but one of them. So, we’re thinking it’s certainly close enough. As such, without further ado, here’s the tale of the tape.
| Stat | Dak Prescott | Drew Brees |
|---|---|---|
| Games/Starts | 139/139 | 138/137 |
| Record (Win Pct.) | 83-55-1 (.601) | 79-58 (.577) |
| Pass Comp/Att | 3,184/4,159 | 3,145/4,822 |
| Cmp% | 66.9 | 65.2 |
| Pass Yards | 35,989 | 35,266 |
| Pass TD | 243 | 235 |
| Interceptions | 92 | 132 |
| Passer Rating | 98.3 | 91.8 |
| Rush Attempts | 473 | 262 |
| Rush Yards | 2,115 | 479 |
| Rush TD | 31 | 7 |
| Pro Bowls | 4 | 5 |
| All-Pro Selections | 1 | 3 |
Pretty wild, right?
As you can see, outside of the Pro Bowl and All-Pro selections, Prescott has the edge in every single category.
That said, however, let’s not forget that those numbers only pertain to the regular season. Now, it is interesting that Dak has played in seven postseason games thus far, which is the exact same number Brees played in his first 10 years.
The big difference, of course, is that while Prescott has never advanced past the Divisional Round, going just 2-5 thus far, Brees, who went 4-3 in his first seven playoff starts, led the Saints to a Super Bowl win in his ninth season, which is the ultimate trump card.
Nevertheless, the numbers Prescott has put up over the last 10 years have been impressive, even if the Cowboys obviously haven’t had the postseason success he clearly craves. Whether Dak, who turns 33 in July, can sustain this level of production for another decade the way Brees did obviously remains to be seen. But with the way he played this past year, he’s obviously nowhere near done.