The

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

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 the 74th season in franchise history. Prior to the season, the Lions hired Steve Mariucci, who was well known for his tenure with the San Francisco 49ers, as their head coach. He spent two and a half seasons with the Lions until his firing in November 2005. The season saw the team draft Charles Rogers with the second overall pick in the

2003 NFL Draft The 2003 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League (NFL) teams selected amateur college football players. The draft is known officially as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting" and has been conducted annually since 1936 NF ...

. However, on-and-off the field issues, and later injuries, interrupted his career. He was released by the Lions in 2006, and immediately went out of the NFL. Much like quarterback

Ryan Leaf Ryan David Leaf (born May 15, 1976) is a former American football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for four seasons. He played for the San Diego Chargers and the Dallas Cowboys between 1998 and 2001, and also p ...

, Rogers remains one of the biggest draft busts in the contemporary NFL. During the offseason, the Lions introduced a new logo, with the outline of the lion changing to black. While the Lions improved on their 3–13, second-to-last place finish from last year, they overall didn't put an end to their on-the-field problems, and went 5–11, for their third losing season in a row. This gave the Lions their third consecutive last place finish in their division, tracing back to their 2001 season, their final year in the NFC Central.

Offseason

The Lions bolstered their defense by signing linebacker

Earl Holmes Earl L. Holmes (born April 28, 1973) is a former American football linebacker and former head coach at Florida A&M University. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 4th round of the 1996 NFL Draft 126th overall out of Florida A&M Uni ...

, defensive tackle

Dan Wilkinson Daniel Raymon Wilkinson (born March 13, 1973) is a former American football defensive tackle who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons. Nicknamed "Big Daddy", he played college football at Ohio State, where he received co ...

and cornerback

Dré Bly Donald André Bly (born May 22, 1977) is a former American football cornerback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for eleven seasons. He played college football for the University of North Carolina (UNC), and earned All-American ...

NFL Draft

Personnel

Staff

Roster

* ''

Ben Johnson Ben, Benjamin or Benny Johnson may refer to: In sports Association football *Ben Johnson (footballer, born 2000), English footballer * Ben Johnson (soccer) (born 1977), American soccer player Other codes of football *Ben Johnson (Australian footb ...

'' T

Schedule

In addition to their regular games with

NFC North The National Football Conference – Northern Division or NFC North is one of the four divisions of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). Nicknamed the "Black and Blue Division" for the rough and tough ri ...

divisional rivals, the Lions played teams from the

NFC West The National Football Conference - Western Division or NFC West is one of the four Division (sport), divisions of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). It currently has four members: the Arizona Cardinal ...

and

AFC West The American Football Conference – Western Division or AFC West is one of the four divisions of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The division comprises the Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Las ...

according to the NFL's schedule rotation, and also played games against the

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. T ...

and

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 ...

, who had finished fourth in their respective divisions in 2002.

Game summaries

Week 1

Week 9

Pro-Football-Reference.com
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Standings

References

External links

Pro-Football-Reference.com Pro-Football-Reference.com is a website providing a variety of statistics for American football. It is one of the few sites that provides information on both active and retired players. The site provides statistics for teams dating back to 1920. ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:2003 Detroit Lions Season

Detroit Lions seasons