Detroit Lions Will Not Face Philadelphia Eagles to Start 2025 Season

Eagles will play a divisional opponent to kickoff the 2025 season.

Detroit Lions defensive tackle Alim McNeill (54) reacts to a play against Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Detroit Lions will not play the Philadelphia Eagles to start the 2025 season.

On Monday morning, it was officially announced the defending Super Bowl champions will host their division rivals, at home, to officially kickoff a new season.

The Dallas Cowboys, who hired Brian Schottenheimer as their new head coach, will travel to Lincoln Financial Field to play an Eagles team that were able to dominate the Kansas City Chiefs in last year's Super Bowl.

With Detroit having a strong season in 2024, there had been some discussion of Dan Campbell's squad being the opponent to face the Eagles in Week 1. After the Lions were stunned by the Commanders early in the playoffs, many wondered how the team would have fared against the Eagles, if they had remained healthy.

Related: Detroit Lions Listed as Dallas Cowboys Toughest Opponent

Amon-Ra St. Brown expressed on his podcast several months ago that Detroit would have been a great option in primetime against the NFC east powerhouse.

"Eagles have the home opener next year because they won the Super Bowl," St. Brown explained. "Can I read you the list of teams that could potentially be in that first game? Commanders, Cowboys, Giants, Bears, Lions, Raiders, Rams, Broncos. Out of all those teams, if you're the NFL, who are you putting in there?"

St. Brown and his brother Equanimeous both agreed the Lions were a solid matchup for Philadelphia.

"That's what I'm saying. So we might be playing Week 1 at Lincoln Financial Field," St. Brown said. "You would see with our healthy defense, how that s**t operates."

On Wednesday evening, the full NFL schedule will be released at 8 p.m ET and will be aired on NFL Network, NFL.com, the NFL app and NFL+.