The 2023 Detroit Lions season did not have a shortage of memorable moments. When a team erases droughts of three decades or longer, it tends to stick in your head for a while.
But was there one moment—one play—that sticks out above the rest? We’ll decide that today as we examine our latest Pride of Detroit Award: Detroit Lions Play of the Game.
As always, our nominations are below, but your vote will decide the winner. So don’t forget to scroll down to the poll at the bottom of the article.
2023 Detroit Lions Play of the Year
Meko Scott: Brian Branch pick-6 vs. Chiefs
Again there are a lot of great plays that occurred this year, but I will forever love the Brian Branch pick 6 on Patrick Mahomes. All offseason we heard about this rookie making waves in the offseason and we finally got to see it for our own eyes on a national stage. I know it was the first game of the season, but that play was the clearest sign that the Lions had another young star in the making.
Morgan Cannon: Derrick Barnes game-winning INT vs. Buccaneers
I have to go with the biggest moment of the season – the interception by linebacker Derrick Barnes to seal the Lions’ spot in the NFC Championship game.
That was such a massive play on literally the most crucial series of the 2023 for the Lions, and he played it perfectly. Beyond the immediate benefit of the Lions being in the Conference Championship, it was cool to see Barnes make that play, having come so far since being drafted in Brad Holmes’ inaugural draft class back in 2021.
Edge rusher day continues for the us here AtoZ Detroit. We already covered Josh Allen and Danielle Hunter. This time we’ll be talking about Panthers edge Brian Burns.
The Pros
The former 16th overall pick is still just 25-years-old so the Lions are getting a key piece of the future here. Burns has generated 46 sacks, 246 pressures and 53 quarterback hits in his five year career.
He’s also been able to stay relatively healthy in those four years. He’s just missed a handful of games in his career and it’s been something like one a season and not a few season/
Cons
2023 wasn’t that great of year for Burns. Besides playing on the worst team in the NFL, Burns sack total dropped from 12.5 in 2022 to eight in 2023. Eight isn’t horrible, but it’s the second lowest total of his career and if the Lions are about to play a lot of money for a player, you’d hope that player would be coming off a good year as opposed to an ok year.
I think Burns is one of those players that had a really good season in his career and left an everlasting image burned in our brains that this is who he always is. In reality he’s a good player, but he shouldn’t cost what I’m about to lay out in my opinion.
What would he cost?
Our on staff cap specialists project that a deal for Burns would be 4 years for $90 million. The annual per year salary would be $22.5 million and $60 million would be guaranteed.
Could it happen?
The Panthers publicly took Burns off the trade block last year because they wanted to keep him. I’m not sure how serious they ever were about trading him. Carolina has desperation written all over them with this rebuild. They’re on the second coach of it a year latter and I don’t think this team has any designs on letting their top defensive star leave. He’s got franchise tag written all over him.
