4. Detroit Lions: Winner
Dan Campbell is a straight shooter, and he's not putting a ton of stock into OTAs. Either that, or he's really trying to motivate his players to bring it when training camp rolls around in July.
He referred to OTAs as a "pajama party" and said that the Lions will really find out "who's who" when it comes to training camp in July. You can't argue with that, and since it's Dan Campbell, you won't argue with that.
Although OTAs do matter, especially for a team with a new offensive coordinator, Campbell is right. The Lions need a renewed focus this offseason after being the league's biggest disappointment in 2025. This is a team that won a whopping 15 games in the 2024 regular season. They were supposed to be Super Bowl contenders in the NFC last season, but Campbell knows that nothing in this league is promised.
You can feel that renewed focus and fire for 2026.
3. San Francisco 49ers: Winner
The 49ers were another team I considered throwing in the "loser" category for this, and simply for the reason that they cancelled minicamp and already broke for the offseason at the conclusion of OTAs.
Don't the 49ers have new players to break into the offense? Don't the 49ers have a new defensive coordinator with Raheem Morris coming in?
Regardless of that, the 49ers saw what they apparently needed to see at OTAs, and the biggest reason why they made it into the "winner" category is because both Mike Evans and De'Zhaun Stribling managed to stand out during their OTAs. Grant Cohn said of Evans that he looks like he'll be a "monster" in the low red zone. Stribling, one of the most contested picks of the 2026 NFL Draft, managed to get behind the defense on multiple occasions for big plays.
If those two guys are as advertised, the 49ers could be in business.
Add us as a preferred source on Google