Which one do you think the Lions are? Or are they something different entirely?

After being the league's worst team in 1997, the 2000 Colts went 10-6 and lost in the first round of the playoffs. They came back in 2001 and went 6-10, and Mora made his famous "playoffs?!" speech. The next year, in 2002, they went 10-6 and made the playoffs again. The rest is history.

The 2007 Browns, on the other hand, had a 10-6 season in an otherwise horrible decade. The following year, in 2008, they fell back to 4-12 and they are a horrible team to this very day.

One important thing to note is that, following the disappointing 2001 season, Mora was fired and replaced with Tony Dungy.

I think its more likely that the Lions are the Colts. Like the Colts, they have a nucleus of talented players. But also, like the Colts, they might need a coaching change.

I hope they are the Colts. And like you said, they need a Tony Dungy to take them to the next level. It isn't Schwartz.

I think we are closer to the colts(I wish Leshoure had half the balls Edgerrin James did though). Stafford needs to take control of the team like Peyton and the other great NFL QBs do. I do think that those Colts are the model for wahat we are trying to do. We are missing a few parts tho. Delmas needs to stay healthy throughout a playoff run(Bob Sanders), we need someone opposite Avril to not be utterly useless on the field. LBs are similar to those colts.

I think the biggest variable is the contrast of emotion between Stafford and Manning. Stafford is almost too cool, even at times when he needs to get fired up. Also Manning controls his offense like a game of Madden.

The coaches....they will be back next year but our nucleus will be here longer than they will. I'm glad our GM & cocky @$$ coach are being humbled and I hope he realizes that no team is good enough to just draft depth players.

The Browns did draft Eric Wright and Brandon McDonald that year