Montgomery: Lions face 'year of reckoning' in '25

ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- David Montgomery says the Detroit Lions are "tired of being close" to winning a Super Bowl and declared the 2025 play arsenic a "year of reckoning."

After a franchise-best 15-win play successful 2024, the top-seeded Lions fell abbreviated of their Super Bowl extremity with a shocking nonaccomplishment against the Washington Commanders successful their playoff opener.

"Everybody's bushed of being close," Montgomery said Sunday. "It's chill to beryllium adjacent astatine first, but you don't privation to get comfy with being adjacent each the time.

"That's not what you privation to beryllium known for particularly erstwhile you cognize you've got the guys you've got connected this team. You privation to decorativeness it, truthful this is the twelvemonth for us. The twelvemonth of the reckoning and the twelvemonth that we take that we request to finish."

The Lions opened grooming campy Sunday astatine the Meijer Performance Center with a spot connected their shoulder, contempt coming disconnected back-to-back NFC North titles.

The sting of past season's disappointing ending -- a 45-31 location nonaccomplishment to Washington successful the NFC divisional circular -- inactive doesn't beryllium good wrong the group, particularly Montgomery, who has large goals this upcoming season.

"This is astir apt the hungriest that I person been due to the fact that I consciousness similar a batch of radical benignant of hide that I'm present successful the offense, too," said Montgomery, who rushed for 775 yards and 12 touchdowns past season. "So, I'm not present to beryllium anybody wrong, I'm present to beryllium myself close and beryllium the champion teammate that I tin be

"But I've decidedly got a large spot connected my shoulder."

The Lions accidental they present stock a communal knowing of what it takes to implicit the ngo successful Detroit, arsenic caput manager Dan Campbell has emphasized the value of sacrificing aboriginal connected to triumph it all.

"You don't enactment for almost. You enactment for the full thing," wide receiver Kalif Raymond said. "I deliberation astatine the extremity of the day, the groundwork that we laic close present is gonna find the tiny infinitesimal details that travel with the astir that happened the past fewer years."

There's besides an added level of maturity astir the enactment entering this twelvemonth that Raymond acknowledged aft experiencing the full gathering process successful Detroit since 2021, erstwhile Campbell archetypal arrived.

"It's a mature team," Raymond said. "It's chill to ticker these guys grow, but much importantly it's chill to ticker these guys go pros due to the fact that present they're vets.

"So, watching them instrumentality the instrumentality the reins of the younger guys coming successful who were erstwhile young guys erstwhile they came successful ... the maturity of the squad has been phenomenal."

The Lions are 1 of 4 progressive NFL franchises without a Super Bowl appearance, on with the Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans. Detroit has the second-shortest likelihood to triumph the NFC astatine ESPN BET, down the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.

"I'm inactive arsenic enthusiastic arsenic ever. I cognize these guys are," Campbell said. "There's a terms to beryllium paid to get yourself backmost into the creation -- backmost into the tourney -- and that volition ne'er change.

"If we fto that descent astatine all, past we're going to beryllium sitting present astatine location successful January, and that's not what we want."