Tag: Lions preseason schedule

Lions first 2 preseason games get national television broadcasts

Detroit’s preseason games against the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers will be nationally televised

Excitement over the beginning of the Dan Campbell coaching era in Detroit carries beyond the Lions fandom. The NFL has picked up on the buzz and given the Lions the preseason spotlight.

Detroit’s first two preseason games will be on national television. The home game with the Buffalo Bills on Friday, August 13th gets the national treatment on the NFL Network. The 7 p.m. kickoff is the first part of a doubleheader that also includes the Cowboys and Cardinals in the latter half.

The following Saturday, Detroit’s road trip to Pittsburgh will also be nationally televised on NFL Network. That game is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. kick. The NFL revealed the full slate of 23 preseason broadcasts on Monday.

The preseason finale against the Colts will only air on local Lions affiliates, including the flagship FOX 2 in Detroit. All games will air on FOX 2 and also broadcast on the radio on 97.1 the Ticket, the lead radio partner.

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Lions 2021 preseason schedule features 3 AFC playoff teams from 2020

All NFL teams now play just 3 preseason games

The Detroit Lions will face some serious AFC firepower in the newly shortened 2021 NFL preseason. All three of the Lions’ preseason foes made the playoffs and won at least 11 games in 2020.

With the regular season schedule expanding to 17 games in 18 weeks, the preseason shrunk from the traditional four games down to three. And the Lions cram those three games into a 14-day period in August. Two of the three games are at home, including the opener on August 13th against the Buffalo Bills.

The schedule

  • August 13: Buffalo Bills, Ford Field, 7 p.m.
  • August 21: at Pittsburgh Steelers, Heinz Field, 7:30 p.m.
  • August 27: Indianapolis Colts, Ford Field, 7 p.m.

The Lions will not have any joint practice sessions leading into the preseason games.

Matt Patricia says Lions practices will get more ‘intense, competitive’ this weekend

The Lions would have played their third preseason game Thursday night in Miami

Don’t call it a scrimmage. Lions head coach Matt Patricia was careful to avoid that word when asked if his team would have a controlled scrimmage this weekend or before training camp ends.

Patricia wouldn’t say if the Lions would hold what most of us would call a scrimmage, or give exact details on what he had planned. But in his Thursday pre-practice Zoom session with reporters, Patricia indicated things will ramp up in intensity and competitiveness over the next few days in lieu of the traditional third preseason game, which would have been Thursday night in Miami.

“Obviously working into this week, which is – let’s call it what would be Preseason Game No. 3 Week,” Patricia said. “This is a week where we’re building towards the end of the week for a little bit more of an intense, competitive practice here this weekend. So we’re looking forward to that as long as, again we take it as it comes here with injuries and the health of the players.”

Patricia continued,

“But if we stay on track with that, we try to get some really good competition this weekend, and then mid-next week will be another target point for us so that it’s far enough away from the start of the season, but also we’ll get enough of an evaluation whether it’s front-end evaluation of the roster or back-end evaluation of the roster. We want to make sure we have time to do that.”

The Lions did take to the practice field on Thursday in Allen Park.

NFL is officially canceling the 2020 preseason

NFL is officially canceling the 2020 preseason as well as reducing the training camp roster size from 90 to 80

It went from four exhibition games down to two, and now those two preseason games are also gone. There will be no preseason football for the NFL in 2020.

The NFL and NFLPA agreed to cancel the exhibition season on Tuesday after both sides concluded that the logistics and risks of exhibition games would not help advance the goal of starting the regular season on time. Union reps informed the players on their respective teams on Tuesday night.

The Lions were originally scheduled to play all four AFC East teams in the preseason. That got shaved to just two, a trip to Miami and a home date with the New York Jets. Now both of those exhibitions are canceled as well.

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In addition, Mike Jones of USA TODAY is reporting the roster size will be reduced from 90 to 80 for training camp.

Report: NFLPA votes to skip the entire 2020 preseason

Report: NFLPA votes to skip the entire 2020 preseason due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic

Could there be no preseason games at all in 2020?

A new report from ESPN’s Dan Graziano suggests that the NFL player’s union has voted to skip the entire preseason schedule out of regard to the coronavirus pandemic.

This comes on the heels of the NFL reportedly agreeing to shave off the first and last preseason game for every team, cutting the exhibition schedule from four back to just two games. The NFLPA had not voted on that decision.

The reps for every team unanimously agreed that no preseason games should be played, per Graziano. It’s unclear at this time if the NFL will force the players to play the two scheduled games or if the entire preseason will indeed get axed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Report: Lions will lose preseason games against Patriots and Bills as NFL cancels 2 weeks

Report: Lions will lose preseason games against Patriots and Bills as the NFL cancels 2 weeks of the exhibition season

The NFL is shaving two games off the 2020 preseason schedule. Per reports from Kevin Seifert at ESPN and Pro Football Talk, the league will cut the exhibition season in half out of concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic.

It will be the first and last preseason weeks that are getting the axe. That means the Lions will lose a road opener in New England and a home date against Buffalo that would have been the exhibition finale.

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Detroit still has preseason games against the New York Jets at home on August 20th and at the Miami Dolphins on August 27th during the preseason. There will also be no joint practices leading into those games.

The NFL has traditionally held four preseason games dating back over 40 seasons.

 

Lions entire preseason schedule is against the AFC East

The Detroit Lions entire 2020 preseason schedule is against the four teams from the AFC East

The NFL continues to push forward with the business-as-normal approach, and that includes the preseason. Dates and times for all four Detroit Lions preseason games were finalized this week.

Detroit will play all four AFC East teams during the 2020 exhibition season. The preseason kicks off in Massachusetts against the New England Patriots on August 13th. The 7:30 p.m. local kickoff might be played in front of no fans due to the coronavirus pandemic and the local response, however.

That’s true for the home date with the New York Jets the following week. ESPN will broadcast the 8 p.m. kickoff nationally.

A trip to Miami and a home date with the Buffalo Bills round out the schedule. There could be joint practice sessions with the Dolphins in the days leading up to the Aug. 27th game, though that has yet to be determined.

Preseason schedule

August 13, 7:30 p.m. – at New England Patriots

August 20, 8 p.m. – New York Jets

August 27, 7:30 p.m. – at Miami Dolphins

September 3, 7 p.m. – Buffalo Bills

All games will be broadcast via the Lions preseason radio and television network affiliates.

Will the Lions host joint practices in training camp in 2020?

The Lions have hosted the Patriots and Giants in the last two training camps, but the popular practice might not happen in 2020

Will there be joint practices at the Detroit Lions training camp in Allen Park this summer? It’s a question nobody can definitively answer just yet.

The Lions have hosted opposing teams in advance of their scheduled preseason games at Ford Field for joint practice sessions in the last couple of training camps. Last year it was the New England Patriots, following the New York Giants in the summer of 2018.

This year’s joint practice candidate for Detroit would be the New York Jets, the team’s first home preseason opponent. New York’s coach is Adam Gase, a former Lions coach and Michigan native. Nothing has been officially scheduled, and based on the current coronavirus pandemic restrictions and accommodations, it might not happen in 2020.

From a recent ESPN piece from analyst Seth Wickersham on the idea of joint practices this summer,

The NFL has not provided teams with guidance at this point regarding events such as joint practices. The league is working with outside experts and the NFL Players Association to develop protocols for players returning to team facilities. The NFL then will work on procedures for training camp.

The Lions make ideal candidates to share a joint week with the Miami Dolphins leading into their third preseason game in Miami, the week after the Jets come to Detroit. Dolphins coach Brian Flores and much of the Miami staff has ties with Lions coach Matt Patricia from their days together with the New England Patriots. That potential joint situation has also has yet to be scheduled.

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