Detroit Lions Listed as Team 'Screwed' by 2026 NFL Schedule

The Detroit Lions close the 2026 NFL season with a challenging stretch of games.

When the schedule was released, many supporters and pundits immediately noticed Dan Campbell's squad will play three of their last four games against division rivals.

These contests against division rivals are always hotly contested, but another challenging factor is all of the remaining division games in the final month of the season take place on the road.

Sports Illustrated recently released a list of eight teams that were "screwed" by the league, due to challenging aspects of the schedule.

"I suppose I cannot complain too much about this one, given that the NFL has done almost precisely what I asked it to do: punish teams that have a very easy strength of schedule in other ways. However, my rub with the Detroit schedule is incredibly specific. Just like I despise that both Rams-Seahawks games are within a three-week stretch to end the season, I really dislike all of Detroit’s road divisional games coming between Weeks 15 and 18," writes Conor Orr. "The Lions travel to Minnesota, Green Bay and Chicago all within the stretch of a month, creating a frantic period just before the playoffs in which the entire NFC North could change in complexion."

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Those that are concerned see the potential of the Lions needing to exert a significant amount of energy to battle through a division race.

The last couple of seasons, the final stretch of games had impact on the division race. Back in 2024, the Lions needed to defeat the Minnesota Vikings the final game of the regular season to secure a division title.

"From a viewing perspective, that’s what we would want, though the league fails to see the forest through the trees here," writes Orr. "By creating such stretches, there’s a higher chance Detroit punches itself out as it did during the disappointing 2024 run that finished with the Lions getting waxed by the Commanders in the playoffs."

Many believe the league should have paced the games more evenly throughout the course of an 18-week NFL schedule.

"This reminds me a little bit of Pittsburgh’s schedule from a year ago, which felt purposely easy in the front half to buoy Aaron Rodgers for a playoff run, only to shove literally every single divisional game in a 12-week stretch after the bye," Orr writes. "Again, the joke is on me because that schedule created one of the great win-and-in moments of the past 10 years, with Pittsburgh edging Baltimore on a missed field goal to make the playoffs, irreversibly altering the course of both franchises. Still, the goal here should be to pace these games more evenly."

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