Predicting which Lions games will justify a primetime slot for 2025 season

The Detroit Lions have to wait just a bit longer to see what their 2025 schedule is looking like, but we already know who their opponents will be on the road and at home this year.

The team posted a refresher on those opponents ahead of Monday, when some primetime games will be revealed beginning with announcements on TODAY Show. Wednesday will be the day of the full schedule reveal for all 32 teams, and the last few seasons have led to some ridiculously creative and viral announcements from teams looking to one up each other.

The Lions are once again a Super Bowl contending squad with much higher aspirations this season than an NFC Divisional Round exit - so, it's safe to assume they'll be on primetime pretty often this year. Let's take a look at their full slate of opponents at home and away, and pick which games are likely to be hosted on primetime.

Predicting Lions' primetime games in 2025 season

Here are the Lions' home and away games for 2025:

Home

Chicago Bears
Green Bay Packers
Minnesota Vikings
Dallas Cowboys
Cleveland Browns
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
New York Giants
Pittsburgh Steelers

Away

Chicago Bears
Green Bay Packers
Minnesota Vikings
Cincinnati Bengals
Kansas City Chiefs
Washington Commanders
Philadelphia Eagles
Los Angeles Rams
Baltimore Ravens

Italics = divisional matchup

It feels safe to say that the Lions' games against a Caleb Williams-led Bears team and a Jordan Love-led Packers team will make primetime. As for the Vikings, with some uncertainty around just how good J.J. McCarthy will end up being in his rookie year at signal caller, they may not get the nod to land on primetime alongside the Lions.

Read more: Analyst ranks Lions defense among NFL's best (but you won't guess where)

Their Commanders game will also, absolutely, be a nominee for primetime. Detroit wants to exact revenge against the team that embarassed them in the Divisional round in 2024, and that will be must-see-TV for NFC fans looking to see how the Lions - and Commanders - handle those emotions.

Detroit's games against the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles and Super Bowl losing Kansas City Chiefs should also be up for primetime consideration. These would be heavyweight battles if the Lions pick up right where they left off in 2024, and the game against Philadelphia will especially be fun since they could very well meet up again in 2025 for a chance to punch a ticket to the Super Bowl.

According to the account "NFL Nerd" on Twitter/X, the Lions are one of the least-primetime televised teams in the NFL since 2002. Obviously, a lot of that has to do with the fact that Detroit missed the postseason 18 out of the 23 years since that mark, and just wouldn't have made sense to put on the national stage often.

Now, things have changed. They've been in the postseason for two seasons in a row, and are suddenly sitting in a much-improved NFC North division. Any football fan will want to see how they fare as they seek to sharpen their iron against the Bears and Packers, and somewhat the Vikings.

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