The NFL released the Detroit Lions' schedule on Wednesday, and we now know who the Lions will face and when they'll face them. We also know when the Lions will play in prime time and when they get their bye week. Here's the schedule. 

Lions' 2025 Schedule

• Week 1: At Green Bay Packers (Sunday, September 7, 4:25 P.M. ET)
• Week 2: Vs Chicago Bears (Sunday, September 14, 1:00 P.M. ET)
• Week 3: At Baltimore Ravens (Monday, September 22, 8:15 P.M. ET)
• Week 4: vs Cleveland Browns (Sunday, September 28th, 1:00 P.M. ET)
• Week 5: at Cincinnati Bengals (Sunday, October 5, 4:25 P.M. ET)
• Week 6: At Kansas City Chiefs (Sunday, October 12, 8:20 P.M. ET)
• Week 7: Vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Monday, October 10, 8:20 P.M. ET)
• Week 8: Bye
• Week 9: Vs. Minnesota Vikings (Sunday, November 2, 1:00 P.M. ET)
• Week 10: At Washington Commanders (Sunday, November 9, 4:25 P.M. ET)
• Week 11: at Philadelphia Eagles (Sunday, November 16, 8:20 P.M. ET)
• Week 12: vs New York Giants (Sunday, November 23, 1:00 P.M. ET)
• Week 13: Vs Green Bay Packers (Thursday, November 27, 12:30 P.M. ET)
• Week 14: Vs  Dallas Cowboys (Thursday, December 4, 8:20 P.M. ET)
• Week 15: At Los Angeles Rams (Sunday, December 14, 4:25 P.M. ET)
• Week 16: Vs Pittsburgh Steelers (Sunday, December 21, 4:25 P.M. ET
• Week 17: At Minnesota Vikings (Thursday, December 25, 4:30 P.M. ET)
• Week 18: At Chicago Bears (TBD) 

Biggest Games on the Lions' 2025 Schedule

• Lions vs Bears: Both the home and away matchups are going to be big. Dan Campbell will go up against his protégé Ben Johnson for the first time, and everyone is going to want to see who comes out on top. 
• Lions at Eagles: Taking on the Super Bowl champions in their building worked out really well for the Lions the last time it happened. These two teams have been compared to each other a lot. Now we'll get to see who comes out on top. 
• Lions at Ravens: Back in 2023, the Ravens beat the pants off the Lions, and you have to believe that this locker room wants to play this team again and has this game circled on their schedule. 
• Lions vs Packers: Both games were really good last year, and while you can make a strong case that the Vikings games might be a little more important based on last year's results, ultimately, I feel like the Packers are better than the Vikings in 2025. 

Primetime matchups

Which games will be primetime viewing and which one will require different apps

The Lions have a total of ENTER HERE primetime games in 2025:

• Week 17 at Vikings: On Christmas Day, the Lions will head to Minnesota to take on the Vikings in what could be a major game for the NFC North title. That game will be on Netflix. 
• Week 6 at Chiefs: This is another big one here. The Lions went into Arrowhead in 2023 and knocked off the champs. Can they do it again?
• Week 11 at Eagles: Playing the Super Bowl champs in their building is going to be a big one. This might be the most-watched Lions game of the year outside of the Thanksgiving game. 
• Week 14 vs Cowboys: Hey, a home prime time game. It's on Thursday night, which is not always fun, but this should be a fun game. This game will be on Prime. 
• Week 3 at Ravens: Every player in the Lions locker room should have this one circled on their calendar. Outside of Washington, this is the big revenge game. 

Strength of Schedule (based off Vegas win totals, not 2024 record)

"Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis does this cool thing every year where he ranks teams' strength of schedule based on Vegas' projected win totals for the upcoming season. He doesn't base it off the standard last year's record model, and it makes a lot more sense, because of all the changes teams go through during the offseason."

Sharp has the Lions having the third-hardest schedule in the NFL in 2025. It's not hard to see why.. They play in arguably the hardest division in football and have to play those three teams twice. Then they have the Super Bowl champs on the road, along with the Ravens, Chiefs, Bengals, Commanders, and Rams. It's going to be hard. Luckily, the Lions only have to play just one outside game in the winter. 

The other good news is that the rest of the NFC North also has a really hard schedule. All four teams are in the top 10 of difficulty. 

Revenge Games on the Lions' 2025 schedule

• Lions at Ravens: I already mentioned this one earlier, but just to reiterate, this is the big one for this team when it comes to revenge. They are going to want to go out and beat the pants off this team. 
• Lions vs Commanders: You might think this is the big one, but the Lions played this game missing basically everyone, and I just don't think it has the same level of bad blood. That doesn't mean they don't want to go out here and beat them, though. 
• Lions at Buccaneers: I think we can all agree that the Lions don't feel good about how they played this game last year. It was the one game in 2024 where they just weren't themselves. They look to be themselves this time. 

5 Must-watch Matchups

• Dan Campbell vs. Ben Johnson: It's going to be the matchup on everyone's mind. There's this idea out there that Johnson was the mastermind in Detroit and Campbell was just some meathead rah rah guy. Here's the chance to prove how dumb that is. 
• Lions receivers vs Eagles secondary: I wish I could remember who said it, but right after the Super Bowl, a big-name sports media member said Cooper DeJean might have been the best second-round pick of all time.  So yeah, go prove that wrong. 
• Lions' defensive line against Lamar Jackson: The mobile quarterback is the thing that Lions fans have nightmares about at night. Did the Lions do enough this offseason to stop that?
• Jared Goff vs Matthew Stafford part 4: This matchup is just always going to be fun, and there's always going to be a little something extra attached. This time it all goes down in Los Angeles. This isn't the 2021 Lions. 
• D.J. Reed and Terrion Arnold vs Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins: Eveyone says this is the best receiver duo in the game. Let's see how the Lions' cornerback tandem handles the.

Was the Lions’ trade-up and selection of Isaac TeSlaa one of the biggest draft reaches of all time? We argue about it

On day two of the 2025 NFL Draft, the Detroit Lions made a big move when they traded their 2025 third-round pick and two 2026 third-round picks to the Jacksonville Jaguars to move up to the 70th pick and take Arkansas receiver Isaac TeSlaa. Since then, there have been quite a few takes on that […]