How tough is the Detroit Lions 2023 schedule?

We know the Detroit Lions opponents for the 2023 regular season, but how does their slate stack up in terms raw strength of schedule ahead of this week’s reveal?

The reveal of the full 2023 NFL regular season schedule is a day away as of this writing, but some prominent games have been revealed and will be revealed before the primetime show Thursday night. We do know the Detroit Lions will not be traveling to Germany to play the defending Super Bowl champions, and they will host their annual Thanksgiving Day game.

Tabbing strength of schedule with real weight going into a season can be tricky, let alone going into a schedule release in May. It’s done based on the previous year’s record and stats (if you play fantasy football in the latter case), as if teams made no changes (for better or worse) in the offseason. From a fantasy angle, I usually dismiss “strength of schedule” out of hand based on the lack of value it has on a surface level if it’s based purely on the previous year.

We know who the Lions, and every team, will play this season.

The Lions will face the second place teams from the NFC East, NFC West and AFC North, and in the cross-division, cross conference schedule the entire NFC South and the entire AFC West. They have eight games against playoff teams from last year (two against the division rival Vikings).

Home: Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings, Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, Seattle Seahawks, Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders

Away: Packers, Bears, Vikings, Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Chargers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New Orleans Saints, Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens

So we can go through a strength of schedule exercise, and John Breech of CBS Sports has outlined it.

How tough is the Detroit Lions 2023 schedule?

The Philadelphia Eagles have the toughest 2023 schedule, with an opponent’s 2022 win percentage of .566. The Atlanta Falcons come in with the easiest, with a .417 combined opponent’s win percentage from last year.

The Lions come in at 20th in strength of schedule, ranked from toughest to easiest of course, with a .495 2022 win percentage for this year’s opponents (143-146 combined record).

So based on broad level strength of schedule, the Lions are in line to make a push to double-digit wins this year. They’ve posted back-to back winning seasons just once since three in a row from 1993-1995, in 2016 and 2017, and that is in play for 2023 after last year’s 9-8 mark.