1973 Detroit Lions

The 1973 Detroit Lions season was their 44th in the league. Don McCafferty, who served as an assistant under Don Shula during Shula's stint as head coach of the Baltimore Colts, and whom as head coach himself coached the Colts to a Super Bowl V victory over the Dallas Cowboys, would replace Joe Schmidt as head coach. However the team woud still fail to improve on their previous season's output of 8-5-1 The team missed the playoffs for the third straight season.