So you want the Lions in the national spotlight? How's this? After starring in the final regular season game last year, Detroit will be featured in the first one this year.
The Detroit Lions will ring in the 2023 NFL season by taking on the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and their MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes at Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday Night Football, according to The Score. The game will be broadcast on NBC, the Lions have confirmed.
It will be a clash of two of the NFL's highest-scoring teams from 2022. It will also be an immediate test for Dan Campbell's Lions, who finished last season on an 8-2 run, loaded up in free agency and the draft and are favored to win their division for the first time in 30 years. They have the NFL on notice. No way to make good on the hype like -- dare we say it -- beating the champs to kick off the season.
And the Lions will be back on Thursday Night Football three weeks later, this time against the Packers at Lambeau Field, according to The Athletic.
It will be a rematch of last year's regular season finale when the Lions kept Green Bay out of the playoffs in Aaron Rodgers' final game as a Packer in a thrilling 20-16 win that went down as one of the highest-rated Sunday Night Football games of the season. And it will be one of Jordan Love's first games as Rodgers' successor.
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Love and the Packers will come to Detroit two months later on Thanksgiving, per The Athletic. It will be the Lions' first Thanksgiving game against Green Bay since 2013, when they stuffed the Packers 40-10.
More schedule leaks are expected throughout the day, with the NFL unveiling the full schedule Thursday at 8 p.m. But one thing's clear already: the NFL is buying the hype in Detroit.
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