Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the top 50 of each major North American sports team. That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists and consistently look to update them when necessary and based on necessity. As such, we are delighted to present our post-2023 revision of our top 50 Detroit Lions.

As for all of our top 50 players in football, we look at the following:

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the National Football League.

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles that are not reflected in a stat sheet.

Last year, the Lions made it to the NFC Championship Final and have finally built a contender after decades of mediocrity.  That being said, this is one of the oldest teams in the NFL, and with their stars being so young, none of them broke into the Top 50.  Nevertheless, we always acknowledge that we took the previous season into account.

As always, we present our top five, which (obviously) saw no changes:

1. Barry Sanders
2. Joe Schmidt
3. Bobby Layne
4. Dutch Clark
5. Lem Barney

 

You can find the entire list here.

We thank you for your continued support of our lists on Notinhalloffame.com.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team. That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity. As such, we are very happy to present our post 2022 revision of our top 50 Detroit Lions.

As for all of our top 50 players in football we look at the following:

1. Advanced Statistics.

2. Traditional statistics and how they finished in the National Football League.

3. Playoff accomplishments.

4. Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Last year, the Lions again failed to make the post-season, but the second half saw a team on the rise, and it could bode well this upcoming season. Despite the promise, this is a young squad, and 2022 did not yield any changes in our Top 50. Despite this, we always aim for transparency, and want to show that 2022 was factored into this rank.

As always, we present our top five, which had no changes (obviously).

1. Barry Sanders

2. Joe Schmidt

3. Bobby Layne

4. Dutch Clark

5. Lem Barney

You can find the entire list here.

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.

Coming out of Jackson State, Cornerback, Lem Barney made an immediate impact for the Lions winning the Defensive Rookie of the Year Award and leading the NFL in Interceptions.  He wouldn’t duplicate that feat as opposing offensive coordinators knew to avoid him like the plague but he was still a seven-time Pro Bowler with 56 total picks and over 1,000 Interception Return Yards.  Barney was also a major asset on the return game.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com thought it would be fun to take a look at the major awards in North American team sports and see how it translates into Hall of Fame potential.

Needless to say, different awards in different sports yield hall of fame potential.  In basketball, the team sport with the least amount of players on a roster, the dividend for greatness much higher.  In baseball, it is not as much as a great individual season does not have the same impact.