Two teams that have legitimate Super Bowl hopes open the National Football League season on Thursday night in the annual Hall of Fame Game. The combatants in Canton, Ohio this week are a pair of teams that cracked the playoff field last season … and two teams that were knocked off in their first postseason game.

In his first season as head coach of the Chargers, Jim Harbaugh led one of three teams from the AFC West to advance past the regular season. In addition to the Chargers, the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos also emerged from the talented AFC West to participate in the 2024 playoffs. Only the Chiefs got a postseason win last season, and their dream of a third straight Super Bowl triumph was crushed by the Philadelphia Eagles, 40-22.

The day after the Chargers lost as a road favorite in Houston to the Texans, the Broncos were dominated on the road in their Wild Card game by the talented Buffalo Bills, 31-7. The Chargers loss was the second in two postseason tries for quarterback Justin Herbert. The sixth year Los Angeles signal caller gets high praise for his arm strength and leadership … but is still to crack a victory in the postseason.

The Chargers opponent this week, the Detroit Lions, entered last year’s playoffs as a favorite to win it all. They earned the top seed in the National Football Conference with 15 regular season wins and entered the postseason as double-digit favorites over the visiting Washington Commanders.

The ride to the top seed in their conference was a steady climb by the previously much maligned franchise under the direction of Head Coach Dan Campbell. He had taken a franchise that had been so bad in recent years that there was talk in the league to strip the organization of one of the league’s most valued traditions, a Thanksgiving game in Detroit.

Campbell arrived in Detroit in 2021 and guided the Lions to a familiar last place finish with a 3-13-1 season record. But, during that offseason, Campbell and the Lions made a bold move by trading their franchise quarterback, Matthew Stafford, to the Los Angeles Rams for a bevy of draft picks and the Rams starting quarterback, Jared Goff.