The

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

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) NFC North, North division. The team plays their home game ...

season was their 67th in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL). The team declined severely from their previous season’s output of 10–6. Following a 4–2 start, the Lions would proceed to lose nine of their final ten games to finish 5–11, missing the playoffs for the first time in four seasons. Following the season, longtime head coach

Wayne Fontes Wayne Howard Joseph Fontes (; born February 17, 1940) is an American former professional football player and coach. He was the head coach of the National Football League (NFL)'s Detroit Lions from 1988 to 1996. He is the longest tenured head co ...

was fired and

Bobby Ross Robert Joseph Ross (born December 23, 1936) is an American former football coach. He served as the head football coach at The Citadel (1973–1977), the University of Maryland, College Park (1982–1986), Georgia Tech (1987–1991), and the ...

was hired to be the team's head coach the following season.

Offseason

NFL draft

Notes * Detroit received San Diego's first-round selection (21st) in exchange for Detroit's second-round selection in

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

. * Detroit traded up from the pick it received from San Diego (21st) with

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

to the 17th pick, giving up a third-round selection (91st) in return. The 91st pick was received from

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

in exchange for S William White. * Detroit traded its second- and seventh-round selections (55th and 236th) to

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

in exchange for RB Glyn Milburn. * Detroit traded up from its third-round selection (86th) with

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

to the Patriots' third-round selection (76th), giving up its fourth- and sixth-round selections (119th and 195th).

Personnel

Staff

Roster

Regular season

Schedule

1996 was the first time since

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

that the Lions played the San Diego Chargers, and the first time they had met the Philadelphia Eagles in the regular season since

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

. The reason for this is that before the admission of the Texans in

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

, NFL scheduling formulas for games outside a team’s division were much more influenced by table position during the previous season.History of the NFL’s Structure and Formats
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Standings

References

External links

at Pro-Football-Reference.com {{DEFAULTSORT:1996 Detroit Lions Season Detroit Lions seasons

1996 in Detroit