The Detroit Lions and Buffalo Bills were both expected to be good this season, hence why their Week 15 matchup was put into the 4:25 ET window for CBS's marquee game on that Sunday afternoon (Dec. 15).
Both teams have delivered on preseason expectations so far. The Lions are 9-1, and the Bills are 9-2 coming off a Week 11 win over the previously undefeated Kansas City Chiefs.
Responding to an inquiring about something he mentioned on his podcast regarding the Lions-Bills game, Justin Rogers of Detroit Football Network further reported the expectation the game will be flexed into Monday night, Dec. 16, in Week 15.
It isn't protected yet. There's a window for this process, but the expectation is it will be.
— Justin Rogers | Detroit Football Network (@Justin_Rogers) November 22, 2024
Currently, there is a doubleheader scheduled for Monday night to close Week 15. The Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears are scheduled to kick off at 8 p.m. ET, followed by the Atlanta Falcons and Las Vegas Raiders starting at 8:30 p.m. ET. It feels like one of those games is ripe to be taken out of its primetime slot, and if possible both could be.
Will Lions-Bills be flexed into Monday night Week 15?
The NFL has expanded flex scheduling beyond Sunday night game, and on Friday the first flex of a game into a Thursday night game was announced, swapping Chargers-Broncos in for Browns-Bengals in Week 16. Per the rules, flexing a matchup into a Thursday night has to be done further in advance that most flex scheduling decisions (Friday was the deadline for Week 16).
The decision to flex a Sunday game to a Monday night has to be done 12 days in advance. So if Lions-Bills is going to be moved, it would have to be done by Dec. 3.
When the original schedule came out in May, it's a virtual certainty CBS protected Lions-Bills from being taken from them and scheduled in a primetime slot. They can protect the game again if it's wanted to be flexed to that Monday night, and if there's not a good alternative the network will surely do so.
So the easy "expectation" is that Lions-Bills at Ford Field will be moved to Monday night in Week 15. But it's not certain to happen, even if the league office wants it badly.