Are the Lions winners this offseason?

Offensive linemen TJ Lang and Rick Wagner join the Detroit Lions in 2017.

The Detroit Lions are being described as early offseason winners. Seriously.

In the past, if those words would’ve come out of someone’s mouth, you would’ve thought that person was delusional.

Lions general manager Bob Quinn has done the near impossible. He’s gotten a multitude of NFL pundits to label the Lions as offseason victors so far.

Although it doesn’t guarantee any degree of success for the Lions in 2017, Quinn’s high-quality, free-agent pickups, spearheaded by the acquisition of hometown product T.J. Lang, have gotten Detroit fans excited for the upcoming season.

Quinn & Co. knew they had voids on the offensive line entering the offseason, and needed to act quickly in order to properly address them.

And so they did, grabbing Lang, a Birmingham Brother Rice High School product and Eastern Michigan alum, from the rival Green Bay Packers, plus Rick Wagner from the Baltimore Ravens.

Lang replaces right guard Larry Warford, who departed via free agency for the New Orleans Saints, and Wagner replaces right tackle Riley Reiff, who signed with the Minnesota Vikings.

Lang and Wagner aren’t your run-of-the-mill linemen. They will be reliable pass protectors for Matthew Stafford, according to the well-renowned analytics site Pro Football Focus.

Speaking of Stafford, if the Lions decide to ink him to a deal this offseason that pays him $25 million annually, he will become the richest player in NFL history.

Why do I bring that up?

Because it’s all the more reason for the Lions need to do everything in their power to keep Stafford upright. It’s the only way in which they can attempt to get the most bang for their buck out of Staff, as he enters his age 29 season.

It’s why it was inportant for the Detroit front office to replace Reiff and Warford with experienced players, like Wagner and Lang, rather than draft picks this April.

According to PFF, Wagner gave up 32 quarterback pressures last season, while Lang allowed just 11 pressures, including no sacks or hits during both the regular season and playoffs. Their combined presence on the O-line should also help out a Lions rushing attack which averaged a paltry 81.9 yards a game last season.

By the way, that per game average on the ground put the Lions 30th out of 32 NFL franchises.

The Lions will also have to add a running back to either complement or take over the No. 1 duties from Ameer Abdullah, who only played in two games last year due to a foot injury.

Detroit could address the need via the NFL Draft by selecting Dalvin Cook of Florida State with the No. 21 overall pick. He’d be a definite upgrade for the backfield with his home-run speed. But there’s a chance that they will wait until later in the draft to get their man.

By waiting to take a back, it would put the Lions in a precarious situation, though. Former Oklahoma Sooner running back Joe Mixon, who brings a ton of baggage that stems from his assault of a woman in 2014, could be available come the third or fourth round or even later.

If he remains available as the draft enters its final rounds, the Lions’ front-office brass will have to make a tough decision on whether to pass on the ultra-talented runner or take him and face the subsequent PR backlash that will come with him.

Based on talent alone, Mixon would likely be taken in the first round. But it takes more than talent to garner long-term success at the next level, which is why Quinn must do his homework before pulling the trigger.

Burning a first rounder on Cook, if he’s still on the board at No. 21, is the best way to go despite Detroit’s need for impact players at other positions, most notably on the defensive line and at linebacker.

Clearly, the need for a linebacker is even greater now, after the organization cut ties with veteran DeAndre Levy.

The Lions might not get a huge upgrade on the D-line or at LB due to spending big money already on Lang ($19 million in guaranteed money) and Wagner ($17.5 million in full guarantees). However, give the organization credit for one thing: it saw the dire need for veteran help on the O-line, and addressed it both quickly and in a big way.

It’s something that previous Lions regimes failed to do, even as they saw Stafford and other Detroit QBs take a bruising.

Stafford got sacked 40-plus times in both 2014 and 2015 (45 times in 2014 and 44 times in 2015). He also suffered 37 sacks in ’16. Adding protection for the Georgia product wisely became priority No. 1 for Quinn.

By acquiring Lang and Wagner, Quinn has made the Lions look like they actually know what they’re doing. Hard to believe, right?

Those acquisitions made so much sense that football pundits have labeled the Lions as early winners of the offseason.

As weird as it may be to have the word “winners” in a sentence talking about the Lions, for once in the franchise’s history, it’s actually warranted.