The NFL schedule officially released Thursday night, meaning it’s now time for NFL fans everywhere to look up and down the calendar and start charting hypothetical wins and losses.
But we’ve known this year’s opponents for some time now, and it’s already been floated around that the Detroit Lions have one of the league’s easiest schedules. Of course, when you get last place in your division, you get to play all the other last-place teams in the conference too. Go figure.
But respected Lions beat reporter Mike Payton of A to Z Sports took this exercise a bit further, when he posited Wednesday that Detroit has a real chance to do something it hasn’t done in 35 years— go undefeated at home.
The Lions' home opponents in 2026 are the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants, New York Jets, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tennessee Titans.
Payton wrote:
"Just take a look at this schedule. There are some tough spots to it, but the toughest spot by far has been removed with the AFC champions being the overseas game. Now you look at the schedule, and I think the toughest matchups are the Packers, Bears, and Buccaneers."Mike Payton, A to Z Sports
This is always a bold thing to say about any team, but let’s level with Payton for a minute because his theory could have legs. After all, the Lions went undefeated on the road just two years ago in 2024 for the first time in franchise history.
Of course, that roster was stronger than the one now, but much of the core pieces from that 2024 team remain intact. And it was with a first place schedule, after all. This year’s Lions team isn’t having to worry about that.
And to cut Payton some slack, he didn’t come out and full-on say “The Lions will go undefeated at home this year” bold prediction-style.Â
Lions writer offers bold take on schedule
The slate includes two teams from the worst division in football (the NFC South), two teams that picked in the top four of this year’s draft (the Jets and Titans) and an upstart Giants team that admittedly gave Detroit a run for its money in 2025.
The three toughest games on the slate as they stand in May are the Lions’ three divisional opponents. The Packers, Bears and Vikings could all be contenders this year and picking Detroit to beat them all at home is the part of this exercise that requires the most wishful thinking.
READ MORE: Brutal stretch for Lions could make or break Dan Campbell's Coach of the Year path
And there’s always the obligatory “We don’t actually know how hard anyone’s schedule is in May because things shift throughout the season”. You don’t have to tell the Lions that twice, considering they’ve been hit about as hard by in-season injuries as any team in the NFL for the past two seasons.
The Lions just need to worry about getting back in the playoffs first before their focus shifts to any loftier goals, but Payton’s proposition is a fun thought in the mid-May dead period of the NFL news cycle. Time will tell if Detroit’s schedule is really as easy as it may look, and if the Lions are able to take advantage of that.
Add us as a preferred source on Google