3 things I love about the Lions\u2019 2026 schedule<\/a><\/p>\n1. Divisional road game cluster<\/p>\n
The first thing I noticed when looking at the schedule was the BRUTAL ending they are giving the Lions. Not only are three of their final four games of the season on the road, but they\u2019re divisional games as well. I don\u2019t understand why the schedule makers think any team in the NFL deserves to play three divisional road games in four weeks at any point in the season.<\/p>\n
Two in a four-week window? Sure, that sucks, but not the worst thing, but three is the worst-case scenario. A common theme for not just the Lions, but the city of Detroit when it comes to its sports luck. What sucks for Detroit is they have to play in Chicago and Green Bay in late December and early January, the worst times you could play in those stadiums.<\/p>\n
After getting angry about the season ending, my attention shifted to where the bye week fell. I was disappointed seeing the bye week being at Week 6. That\u2019s the second-earliest bye week of any team, and having it weeks before the Germany game seems crazy. I understand the league not wanting to give Detroit an advantage for Thanksgiving but Week 8 was right there.<\/p>\n
Bye week timing is important, and the earlier they are, the tougher it is to keep your team healthy later in the season. It\u2019s not the worst placement, but it could\u2019ve been more friendly for the Lions.<\/p>\n
3. Overseas\/Thanksgiving scheduling<\/p>\n
Another issue I saw was the timing of the Germany game and Thanksgiving. After playing on the road in Week 8 against the Miami Dolphins, the Lions will only have a couple of days home before they travel to Germany. Thankfully, they play at home when they return against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but then it\u2019s suddenly Thanksgiving and the team has to play another game.<\/p>\n
Three football games in 12 days isn\u2019t going to be good on players\u2019 bodies, and with one of those games being international, it means longer travel and challenges on an already challenging schedule. If the Lions didn\u2019t have their Thanksgiving game quickly after, this wouldn\u2019t be an issue, but once again, the Lions\u2019 luck of the draw comes up short.<\/p>\n
4. Lack of primetime home games<\/p>\n
Last year, the Lions\u2019 record wasn\u2019t earth-shattering at 9-8, but they are still growing in popularity. So surely they\u2019ll host multiple primetime games this year.<\/p>\n
The Lions play in four primetime games in 2026. Week 2 against the Buffalo Bills on the road on \u201cThursday Night Football\u201d, Week 4 against the Carolina Panthers on the road on \u201cSunday Night Football,\u201d Week 15 at Minnesota for \u201cSunday Night Football,\u201d and Week 16 against the New York Giants at home on \u201cMonday Night Football.\u201d I appreciate the home season finale being in primetime, but we couldn\u2019t have the Packers or Bears in primetime at home?<\/p>\n
5. Thanksgiving boredom strikes again<\/p>\n
Remember when the Lions had fun Thanksgiving games? I remember. Games against the Philadelphia Eagles, Houston Texans, Buffalo Bills, and New England Patriots were fun Thanksgiving matchups, even if the Lions lost. For some reason the NFL has decided that Thanksgiving for Detroit is turning into a divisional game. Ever since 2007, the Lions have hosted an NFC North team 13 times.<\/p>\n
65 percent of Detroit\u2019s Thanksgiving games the past two decades have been against either the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, or Minnesota Vikings. But wait, it gets worse! Of those 13 times, the Lions have played the Vikings TWICE. That means 11 of the past 20, or 55 percent, have been against the Bears or Packers. Sure, those rivalries have more history to them, but let\u2019s mix it up a bit, eh? I am tired of seeing the same game almost every year. Where\u2019s the fun?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Detroit Lions\u2019 2026 schedule was released on Thursday, and man, the schedule makers did the Lions no…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[270448,2131,5192,99],"class_list":["post-644812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-detroit-lions-schedule","tag-detroit-lions-analysis","tag-detroit-lions-opinion","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}