It's going to be a long, hard summer for the Pride Park faithful as the play off race seems to be slipping from their grasp.
Despite the presence of a 20-goal striker, something has gone horribly wrong for the Rams. They should have been challenging the top two right now, instead they face a make or break clash with Cardiff tomorrow night.
Few neutrals would give them much hope of securing their top six finish, especially not with Aston Villa up next.
Once their final position is confirmed, there's going to be lots of recriminations and discussion about what happened and how it can be prevented from happening again.
One method of improving their fortunes is via strong player recruitment and having suffered from such a lack of quality this season, it seems Derby's best approach to regaining their top flight success. They must recruit strongly, addressing a lack of character within their ranks.
With that in mind we think they should make a move for one man, over and above everyone else. After that, there's two more players they need to focus on bringing to Pride Park.
Maybe then they can finally sustain a proper automatic promotion challenge.
Combative, tough tackling and a definite organiser, Adam could be the catalyst Derby need to regain their winning mentality. Adam has been the driving force behind Stoke City's constant Premier League survival, but even he has struggled this season.
He's available on a free transfer in the summer and would make the perfect holding midfielder in Derby's current set up.
They need strength, they need guile and most of all, they need character. Adam has all three.
He's been a rumoured target for a while now, but at the back Derby do need a change of emphasis and although he's been in League One, we think they should step up their pursuit of Lenihan.
He can play in defence or midfield so might bridge the gap there, plus he's young and could quite easily be moulded into whichever role Derby specifically need. He's also worked with Rowett before, on loan at Burton Albion.
He's not big name, but he's got huge potential and that might serve them well.
They'll have to spend, they'll have to spend big, but if Derby want out of the league then they need Jack Marriott.
In their last home game Vydra and Lawrence started behind Dave Nugent, but Nugent isn't producing the goods.
If they want goals, if they want an out-and-out striker with raw pace, power and a frightening eye for goal, they need to find the £6m+ it'll cost to prise Marriott away from Peterborough United.