Report: Here are Packers’ Home Games

The Green Bay Packers will open the season at Minnesota, home against Detroit and at New Orleans.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers will hit the road to face two of the league’s powerhouses in the first three weeks of the 2020 NFL season.

According to the Star-Tribune’s Ben Goessling, the Packers will play at the Minnesota Vikings to kick off the season.

In Week 2, according to numerous reports, the Packers will open the home schedule against the Detroit Lions.

In Week 3, the Packers will play at the New Orleans Saints on Sunday night.

While the Packers will announce the full schedule at 6:30 p.m., some of the matchups have leaked. According to Marques Eversoll of WDUZ-FM 107.5, this is the home schedule: Week 2 against Detroit, Week 4 against Atlanta, Week 8 against Minnesota, Week 10 against Jacksonville, Week 12 against Chicago, Week 13 against Philadelphia, Week 15 against Carolina and Week 16 against Tennessee.

Some other games that have been reported include Week 3 at New Orleans and Week 17 at Chicago.

Last year, the Packers played six of their final nine games away from Lambeau Field. This year, they’ll have five of seven at home before the finale against Chicago.

While various media outlets predicted the season would be constructed in such a way that it could easily absorb any early-season delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic – such as NFC vs. AFC games for the first month – that Green Bay is opening the season with back-to-back division games shows that might not have been the case. It will be interesting to see the full 17-week schedule for a bigger-picture viewpoint of the schedule’s construction.

The home games against Atlanta (Monday, Oct. 5) and Chicago (Sunday, Nov. 29) are set for prime time. Lambeau Field will host Notre Dame at Wisconsin on Oct. 3, meaning a short turnaround to get the stadium ready for the Falcons.

Here are Green Bay’s opponents:

Home: Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Carolina, Atlanta, Jacksonville and Tennessee.

Away: Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, San Francisco, New Orleans, Tampa Bay, Houston and Indianapolis.

The Packers will play seven games against teams that reached the playoffs in 2019: Minnesota, Philadelphia and Tennessee at home, and Minnesota, San Francisco, New Orleans and Houston on the road. That list does not include Tampa Bay, which could be massively improved with the addition of Tom Brady at quarterback.

Beyond the divisional clashes, the road schedule looks especially challenging. The 49ers and Saints are among the best teams in the league, the Buccaneers won their last four games last season and added Brady and Rob Gronkowski, the Texans posted back-to-back seasons of 10-plus wins with quarterback Deshaun Watson, and the Colts added quarterback Philip Rivers after stumbling last season following Andrew Luck’s surprise retirement.

Nonetheless, based on last year’s records, the Packers’ schedule isn’t exceedingly difficult. There’s more on that in the accompanying video.