Tag: lions schedule

Game-by-game predictions for the 2023 Detroit Lions schedule

Here’s an early prediction, going game by game through the 2023 Lions schedule and picking wins and losses.

The 2023 Detroit Lions are offseason favorites to win the NFC North division. Coming off a strong 8-2 finish that vaulted Detroit into second place a year ago, the returning core and augmented talent via free agency and the draft is expected to compete for a playoff berth. Maybe even a postseason home game…or two!

For that to happen, the Lions have to take care of business. The recently released season schedule is an interesting one, with some peculiarities that could slow down the franchise’s momentum. Can they prevail and get back into the postseason for the first time since 2016?

Here’s an early prediction, going game by game through the 2023 Lions schedule and picking wins and losses. It’s an early guess at the outcomes for Dan Campbell’s team this coming season.

Full disclosure: In last year’s edition of this “schedule game,” I projected the Lions to finish 7-10. Here’s hoping I lowballed them again…

Watch: Breaking down the Lions schedule and picking wins and losses

The Detroit Lions Podcast break down the Lions schedule for 2023 and predicts wins and losses in each game

The Detroit Lions slate of games was released on Thursday night. That means it’s time for the “schedule game”!

The Detroit Lions Podcast broke down all the games on the team’s schedule, including the rise into four prime-time games and several kickoffs outside the typical 1 p.m. window each Sunday.

Then comes the real fun: picking wins and losses in each game. There is some disagreement on quite a few of the outcomes, but both paths lead to the postseason for Detroit.

Quick takeaways from the Detroit Lions schedule in 2023

A few quick takeaways on the Lions schedule in 2023, from key stretches and prime-time games to a nice bye week.

The NFL’s schedule release extravaganza revealed the full slate of the Detroit Lions games for the 2023 season.

From the opener on September 7th through the finale in the first weekend in January, the Lions get 17 chances to prove they can build upon the momentum from a great finish in 2022. Based on a quick study of the docket, it’s not going to be easy.

Here are a few quick, initial takeaways from the Lions schedule for the upcoming season.

NFL gives the Lions 4 prime-time games on 2023 schedule

The Lions are

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One year ago, the Detroit Lions were shut out of primetime. Not a single game on the 2022 NFL schedule featured the Lions playing under the lights on a national stage.

How things have changed in a year!

Thanks to a torrid finish to the 2022 season and a growing buzz around the league, the Lions will be featured three times. That includes the very first game of the season, opening Week 1 in Kansas City on Thursday Night Football on September 7th.

It’s quite a jump from last season’s schedule release, where Detroit was blanked from primetime national games. The Week 18 win over the Packers in Green Bay was flexed into the Sunday Night Football slot, but that was the Lions’ lone appearance.

After opening on Thursday night in Kansas City, the Lions are also in primetime in Week 4 in Green Bay–also on Thursday night–and Week 8 at home against the Raiders on Monday Night Football. Detroit will also play on Saturday night at Dallas in Week 17, another national game. That doesn’t count the traditional national broadcast for the Thanksgiving early afternoon game, which features the Packers in Ford Field.

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The Detroit Lions regular season schedule for 2023

The Detroit Lions regular season schedule for 2023

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The Detroit Lions will attempt to build upon the strong finish to the 2022 season with more prominent expectations in 2023. The sequence of games sets up for the Lions to get a lot more public visibility and divergent time slots in the upcoming season.

Starting with the Week 1 kickoff trip to face the champion Chiefs in Kansas City, the Lions have at least four games outside of the typical 1 p.m. ET Sunday kickoff.

Here’s the Detroit Lions schedule for the 2023 season, with the final two weeks subject to flex scheduling options. All times are 1 p.m. ET unless otherwise indicated.

Week Date vs./at Opponent Time (ET)
1 9/7 @ Kansas City Chiefs 8:20 ET (Thursday) Tickets
2 9/17 Seattle Seahawks 1 p.m. ET Tickets
3 9/24 Atlanta Falcons 1 p.m. ET Tickets
4 9/28 @ Green Bay Packers 8:15 ET (Thursday) Tickets
5 10/8 Carolina Panthers 1 p.m. ET Tickets
6 10/15 @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1 p.m. ET Tickets
7 10/22 @ Baltimore Ravens 1 p.m. ET Tickets
8 10/30 Las Vegas Raiders 9 ET (Monday) Tickets
9 BYE
10 11/12 @ Los Angeles Chargers 4:05 ET Tickets
11 11/19 Chicago Bears 1 p.m. ET Tickets
12 11/23 Green Bay Packers 12:30 ET (Thanksgiving) Tickets
13 12/3 @ New Orleans Saints 1 p.m. ET Tickets
14 12/10 @ Chicago Bears 1 p.m. ET Tickets
15 12/17 Denver Broncos TBD Tickets
16 12/24 @ Minnesota Vikings 1 p.m. ET Tickets
17 12/30 @ Dallas Cowboys 8:20 ET (Saturday) Tickets
18 Minnesota Vikings TDB Tickets

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NFL VP of Broadcasting explains why the Lions were chosen to play the Chiefs in Week 1 kickoff

NFL VP of Broadcasting Onnie Bose explains why the Lions were chosen to play the Chiefs in the Week 1 kickoff matchup

The Detroit Lions are one of the rising stars in the NFL in 2023. The national buzz around the Lions is reaching unexpected heights after the team’s 8-2 finish to 2022.

Detroit is en vogue enough to be selected as the kickoff opponent in the 2023 season opener against the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs. The Lions trip to Kansas City will be the first game of the upcoming season, featured on Thursday Night Football in Week 1.

NFL Vice President of Broadcast Onnie Bose joined the Dan Patrick Show on Thursday to talk about a number of schedule-related issues, including the decision to pit the Lions against the Chiefs as the season-opening feature matchup.

“(The Chiefs) have great home opponents this year,” Bose said. “We could have gone out with a Super Bowl rematch. We could have played Cincinnati, the (AFC) championship rematch. We could have played Buffalo. Any one of those games would have gotten blockbuster numbers. We considered all of them. They’ve got great divisional matchups. The AFC West always matters. The Chargers play great primetime games against the Chiefs. So we left ourselves open-minded.”

Bose continued,

“There are years where we say, ‘This is the one game we’re going to play on kickoff. This year, we kind of said, ‘There are a lot of games that we’ve got to consider.’ And as we went through the process, the Lions were one of those teams that we left in there. And we really like the narrative around that time, the culture that they’re building there. The way they finished their season, eight wins out of their last nine of ten games. The last time we saw them on national television was the last game, game 272 of the regular season, and they were beating the Packers in Lambeau to keep Aaron Rodgers out of the playoffs. We really like that. There is a lot of energy there and we feel really good about starting the season with that energy against the Super Bowl champs.”

Thanks to Charles Goldman of Chiefs Wire for the interview transcription, used with permission!

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Lions to open 2023 season at Chiefs on Thursday Night Football

The Lions closed out the 2022 season on primetime and will open the 2023 campaign under the lights, too.

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The full NFL schedule will be released at 8 p.m. on Thursday, but one widely reported leak appears to be confirmed. The Detroit Lions will open the 2023 NFL season by playing the Kansas City Chiefs in Arrowhead Stadium in the very first game of the season.

Jordan Schultz of The Score reported that the Lions will visit the Chiefs in the season opener on Thursday, September 7th in primetime. It’s the kickoff game for the entire season, one laden with promise for Dan Campbell’s Lions. The Lions played in the final regular season game of 2022, knocking off the Packers in Green bay in Detroit’s one primetime game last season. Now they open the new campaign under the lights once again.

Detroit draws a major challenge in Week 1. The Chiefs are the defending Super Bowl champs and figure to raise the banner in their raucous home stadium that night.

Update: It’s now confirmed.

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The Lions get one of the lightest travel schedules for 2023

The Detroit Lions will travel some of the fewest total miles in the NFL in 2023

We don’t yet know the sequence of games, but the Detroit Lions home and away opponents for the 2023 season are already determined. The interdivisional matchups, NFC North foes and one crossover game were all set by the league months ago.

In an informative tweet from ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the total mileage distance for each team is laid out. The Lions will travel the sixth-fewest total miles in the 2023 season based on air miles between stadiums.

In fact, no other team changes time zones less than the Lions in the upcoming season. Interestingly, the Lions are the only NFC North team in the Eastern Time Zone but still make just eight total time zone changes.

The four NFC North teams–Detroit, Chicago, Green Bay and Minnesota–are in the bottom six teams in terms of total mileage. The Cincinnati Bengals travel the fewest, with the Carolina Panthers also in the bottom six.

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The Lions officially not playing any international games in 2023

The NFL released the schedule of international games and the Detroit Lions are not on it

No passports needed for the Detroit Lions in 2023. The team will remain in the United States for all 17 games on the upcoming season schedule.

The NFL released the five matchups that will take place internationally for the 2023 season. Detroit is not among the teams slated to play outside the U.S.

The team’s road game with the Kansas City Chief was the only potential road game that could be played abroad. Instead, the Chiefs will host the Miami Dolphins in Frankfurt, Germany on November 5th.

The full Lions schedule will be released Thursday, May 11 at 8 p.m. ET.

Lions shut out of primetime games in 2022 NFL schedule

The Lions only national TV appearance comes in Week 12 against the Bills on Thanksgiving

The suspense of the NFL schedule release led to some eventual disappointment for Detroit Lions fans. The disdain has nothing to do with the sequence of games, however.

No, the issue is the lack of primetime games. The Lions will not be featured once in the national viewing window outside of the traditional Thanksgiving kickoff in Week 12, when the Lions host the Buffalo Bills in the only game at the 12:30 ET window.

No Thursday games. No Sunday Night or Monday Night Football dates.

Every other game on the schedule is slated to start at 1 p.m. ET. There aren’t any late-afternoon kickoffs with the team not traveling outside of the Eastern and Central time zones.

Sure, the Lions went 3-13-1 last year and earned the No. 2 overall pick in the draft as a result. But the one team that finished worse than Detroit, the Jacksonville Jaguars, landed a Thursday Night Night Football date against the New York Jets in Week 16. The Jaguars also have a nationally televised game when they host the Broncos in London in Week 8.

Technically the league could flex the Lions into a primetime slot late in the season, and the Week 18 matchup with the Green Bay Packers does not yet have a set time. If the Lions are in the playoff mix late in the year, the NFL-imposed blackout on national games could change.

Even with the growing buzz about Lions coach Dan Campbell and the exciting new offensive weapons in Detroit, the team’s lowly reputation and lack of national cache will keep them from being on primetime. Winning more games appears to be the only way to earn it. Go earn it, Detroit…