Rod Wood: Lions trying to view last-place finish through positive lens

Phoenix — On his way out the door, Rod Wood is trying to view the Detroit Lions’ last-place finish as a positive. “One of the advantages of going through a year where you were disappointed is it does force you to think about things,” Wood, the team president, said Tuesday at the NFL’s annual league meetings in Phoenix. This has been a common theme among Lions decision-makers this offseason as the team tries to put the pieces back together after its worst season since 2022.

The central question of that sentiment has largely to do with whether Detroit has lost its gritty edge that propelled it to great heights during the 2023 and 2024 seasons. At points during the 2025 season, it seemed the Lions were mentally weaker than we’ve seen them in some time. Moments of adversity in-game seemed to crush them.

Blame was passed around, as the offensive coordinator, offensive personnel and head coach all pointed to different reasons for the team’s inconsistent offense, while the defense crumbled following a string of injuries to players in the secondary. Wood said the organization is exploring ways to regain the hunger that they had during their rise. “I think we kinda came through a period, and Dan and I have talked about it, you were building this the right way, you draft players, you develop them, we start to have success, they become stars, and how do you manage a team now that’s successful and has a bunch of stars on it versus a team that was, you know, Amon-Ra St.

Brown drafted in the fourth round and upset all these receivers were taken ahead of him,” Wood said. “How do you go back and — you can’t recreate that situation — but how do you come up with ideas to create a situation where you have the same kind of hunger? And I think the fact that we missed the playoffs, didn’t win the division, in itself creates some of that.