Detroit Lions

Detroit Lions

It's been a tough road for the Detroit Lions, who have now missed the playoffs in four straight years. The 2020 season ended with a 5-11 record and last-place finish in the NFC North. The Lions will now enter their 2021 campaign with a new quarterback, new head coach, new general manager, and new ownership.

Oddsmakers are suggesting 2021 should be another down year for Detroit, which has one of the lowest win totals in the NFL. The team will look to rebuild and take steps forward under new coaching and new QB Jared Goff.

See all of the Lions odds above, as well as their full schedule, depth charts, key injuries, team trends, against-the-spread (ATS) performance and more.

Detroit Lions Point Spreads

It was not profitable over the course of the 2020 season to bet on the Lions, who covered the spread at just a 43.8% rate, including going just 3-5 ATS at home at Ford Field. If you're a new bettor, covering the spread refers to spread bets, the most common type of bet in the U.S. In a nutshell, these are bets on how much a team will win or lose the game by.

Here’s a brief example of a spread for a Lions game:

• Lions +8.5 (-110)
• Vikings -8.5 (-110)

You can read these odds by first looking at the plus (+) or minus (-) signs: Those indicate the underdog and favorite, respectively. In the above example, the Lions are 8.5-point underdogs, which means a Lions spread bet could win in two ways: 1) if the Lions beat the Vikings outright or 2) if the Lions lose by eight or fewer points. If the Vikings won by nine or more, that side of the bet would win.

Detroit Lions Over/Unders

The Lions were profitable on over/under bets -- well, depending on which side of them you bet. Over/under bets, also commonly called totals, are wagers on how many points will be scored by both teams in the game. The over in Lions games last year hit the over 62.5% -- the fifth-highest mark in the league.

Let's use an example with the Lions for a total bet: Say the Lions vs. Packers game had a total set at 55 points. It's pretty simple: You can bet either over 55 points or under that mark. If the game finished at 56 or more points, the over bettors would win. If it finished at 54 or fewer, the unders would cash. If it hit exactly 55, that would be a "push" and money would get refunded.

Detroit Lions Moneylines

The Lions will likely not be very good in 2021, which could mean a lot of losses. Moneyline bets are simply bets on which team will win, independent of margin of victory. Why would anyone bet on the Lions moneyline?

The answer is because moneylines are set based on expectations of who will win; you can't just bet the Chiefs and double your money if they win. Let's say the Lions play the Bears: The Lions moneyline might get set by sportsbooks at +180, which means they're underdogs. In that situation, if the Lions won the game, bettors would profit $18 for every $10 they bet. Sure, the Lions likely lose the game more often than not, but you get a better payout as a result.

If the Lions are favorites, the odds will have a minus sign, and the payouts work in reverse. If the Lions moneyline is set at -130, you'd have to bet $13 to get $10 on a victory.

You can use our Odds Calculator to calculate any bet amount or conversion.

Detroit Lions Props

If you're a fantasy football fanatic and love tracking individual player performance rather than teams, player props is a good next step if you're interested in the betting world. Those are bets on how a single player will do in the game in a variety of statistics.

Some examples of Lions props this year include Jared Goff to throw over/under a set amount of passing yards, D'Andre Swift to score a touchdown, TJ Hockenson to catch a pass, and more.

Lions Futures

The beautiful part of betting is that you can often bet either side of something. Take a futures bet, which are wagers on an end-of-season outcome. Whether you think the Lions will make or miss the playoffs, you can bet either way.

Some other examples of Lions futures this year include their odds to win the NFC North, Jared Goff to lead the league in passing yards, and more.