Most of the Detroit Lions ’ success in the first quarter of this century has been confined to the past two years. The Lions made the NFC championship game in the 2023 season and set a franchise record for victories (15) in 2024 after posting just five winning seasons with no playoff victories in the first 23 seasons of the 2000s.

But picking the Free Press' All-21st Century Team for the organization wasn’t as easy as identifying the best players of the Dan Campbell era. Some of the Lions’ best players now simply don’t have the same body of work as their predecessors, and in the NFL there’s something to be said for longevity.

For this project, I tried to strike a balance between the players who had the best seasons and the ones who performed at a high level for a more extended perio

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