Packer Central

2025 Packers Schedule: Finally, a Week 1 Home Game

For the first time in coach Matt LaFleur’s tenure, the Green Bay Packers will kick off the 2025 NFL season at home with a showdown against the Detroit Lions.
Bill Huber|
Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love will lead the team into a Week 1 home game against the Detroit Lions.
Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love will lead the team into a Week 1 home game against the Detroit Lions. | Benny Sieu-Imagn Images

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – For the first time in coach Matt LaFleur’s tenure, the Green Bay Packers will start the season at Lambeau Field.

According to Fox Sports’ Jordan Schultz, the Packers will host the Detroit Lions in Week 1. Kickoff on Sunday, Sept. 7, will be 3:25 p.m.

The Packers haven’t opened the season at home since 2018.

The rematch will come at Ford Field on Thanksgiving.

The Lions are the two-time defending NFC North champions. They went 15-2 last season and earned the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs despite a mile-long list of key injuries.

Once upon a time, a Packers home game against the Lions was a layup. From 1992 through 2014, the Packers won 24 consecutive home games against Detroit, including one playoff win. However, the Lions have won three consecutive games in Green Bay, including 24-14 in the rain in 2024, 34-20 in 2023 and 20-16 in Aaron Rodgers’ final game with the Packers in 2022.

Lions quarterback Jared Goff finished fifth in NFL MVP voting last season. He completed 72.4 percent of his passes for 4,629 yards with 37 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and a 111.8 passer rating. He finished in the top four in all of those categories, including second in rating.

In two matchups last year, Goff completed 79.4 percent of his passes with a passer rating of 109.5. His 71.7 percent completion rate is the highest for any quarterback in Lambeau history (minimum 100 passes).

Detroit coach Dan Campbell has won six of the last seven matchups against LaFleur.

After losing offensive coordinator Ben Johnson (head coach, Bears) and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn (head coach, Jets) in the offseason, maybe getting the Lions in Week 1 will work to Green Bay’s advantage as Detroit tries to work out the kinks. Or, maybe the element of surprise will work in Detroit’s favor.

LaFleur is 23-13 in NFC North games, the .639 winning percentage ranking fourth in the league over that span. However, after going 11-1 against the North during his first two seasons, his team was swept by Detroit and was a blocked field goal away from going 0-6 in division games last season.

For the Packers to win the NFC North this season and at least get one home playoff game, they must do better in division games. A win against the mighty Lions would be a good start.

“I think every year is a little bit different,” LaFleur said at the NFL owners meetings. “When you look at it the last two years in the playoffs, we’ve lost to a Super Bowl champion, we lost to a team that went to the Super Bowl. I think our league is as competitive as any league in the world, and so I do think it would be nice to get back to taking control of the division to get a home playoff game. 

“It’s definitely easier to win at home than it is on the road. It’s always a challenge, but it’s just, in those key moments, you got to maximize them, man. In those big-time moments, you got to come out and make the plays that are there to be made.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.