The NFL didn’t do the Detroit Lions any favors this fall—but try telling that to Dan Campbell. Before Friday’s Organized Team Activities, the head coach couldn’t hide his excitement about a slate that many analysts call one of the league’s toughest. For Campbell, those 17 games are exactly what a 15-2 team needs to transform regular-season success into January grit.
TL;DR
Lions draw the NFL’s second-hardest strength of schedule (.561 opponent win percentage).
Eleven opponents made last year’s playoffs; nine road games all land in national-TV windows.
Campbell says the lineup will leave Detroit “scarred up and ready” for the postseason.
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Why Campbell Loves the “Right Kind of Brutal” Schedule
“I love the schedule we have this year because this is the type of schedule that builds you for the postseason,” Campbell said as quoted by the Detroit Free Press. “Like, man, you better be on it. And we’re going to get tested early and often and all year long, and it’s fricking awesome. It’s really how you want it. So we’ll be ready to go when the time’s right.”
Translation: bring on the gauntlet. Detroit faces home-and-away clashes with Green Bay and Minnesota, plus road showdowns against the Eagles, Commanders, Rams, Chiefs, Ravens and Bengals—all slotted into prime-time or national windows.
The Road-Warrior Stretch
Nine true road games would spook most teams, but Campbell frames them as rehearsal dinners for the playoffs. Every hostile crowd—Arrowhead, the Linc, Paycor—becomes a chance to sharpen the Lions’ poise under pressure.
Hardened for January
“It’s awesome, man,” Campbell continued. “To me, by the end of the year we ought to be just scarred up. We should be scarred up and ready to go, hardened for battle and ready for the playoffs. And there’ll be nothing easy about it. You still, just to get through our own division is going to be brutal, but it’s the right kind of brutal.”
That phrase—right kind of brutal—is quickly becoming Detroit’s offseason mantra. The Lions believe last year’s 15-2 mark rang hollow after a Wild Card loss to Washington. This year’s unforgiving schedule should expose flaws early, giving Campbell’s staff time to patch them before the real stakes arrive.
2025 Detroit Lions game-by-game predictions
Bottom Line
Detroit’s path to a Super Bowl won’t involve cupcake Sundays—and that’s precisely why Campbell is fired up. If the Lions emerge from the “right kind of brutal” with the scars their coach wants, they’ll be battle-tested for the games that matter most.