The

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

season was their 44th in the

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

. Don McCafferty, who served as an assistant under

Don Shula Donald Francis Shula (January 4, 1930 – May 4, 2020) was an American football defensive back and coach who served as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) from 1963 to 1995. The head coach of the Miami Dolphins for most of his ca ...

during Shula's stint as head coach of the

Baltimore Colts The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from its founding in 1953 to 1984. The team now plays in Indianapolis, as the Indianapolis Colts. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breed ...

, and who as head coach himself coached the Colts to a

Super Bowl V Super Bowl V was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Baltimore Colts and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Dallas Cowboys to determine the National Football League (NFL) champio ...

victory over the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

, would replace Joe Schmidt as head coach. However, the team would still fail to improve on their previous season's output of 8–5–1, finishing a mediocre 6–7–1.1973 Detroit Lions
/ref> The team missed the playoffs for the third straight season.

NFL Draft

Notes * Detroit traded TE Craig Cotton and its first-round selection (19th) to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in exchange for Chicago's first- and third-round selections (17th and 58th). * Detroit traded DB Al Clark to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

in exchange for the Rams' third-round selection (75th). * Detroit traded its second-round selection in

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

to Atlanta in exchange for CB

Rudy Redmond Rudolph Cruzette Redmond (born August 25, 1947) is a former American football cornerback in the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the fourth round of the 1969 NFL Draft. He played college football at Pacific. ...

, RB Sonny Campbell and Atlanta's fourth-round selection (91st). * Detroit traded its fifth-round selection (123rd) to

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

in exchange for TE John Hilton. * Detroit traded its sixth-round selection (148th) to

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

in exchange for LB Rick Ogle. * Detroit traded DT Jerry Rush to

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

NFL Draft

Roster

Schedule

Season summary

Week 1

Week 14

Standings

References