The complete 2026 slate with rest edges and schedule context, the 2025 ledger, and the franchise record since 1999 — every number computed from the bundled nflverse game log.
By C. B. Zakarian · Updated July 29, 2026
The Detroit Lions enter 2026 off a 9–8 season. Their 2026 opponents went a combined 134–153–2 in 2025 (a .467 strength of schedule, 27 of 32 — the naive prior-year method, whose real forecast error we measured here). The calendar hands them a net rest differential of +1 days (15 of 32), with week 3 (+3), week 7 (+7), week 11 (-7), week 13 (+3), week 15 (-3), week 17 (-3); the bye falls in week 6, they play 2 Thursday games, and 3 of their final four games are divisional. Rest-edge context lives in the schedule-quirks explainer.
Results fill in automatically as the bundled nflverse game log updates; until a game is played its result column shows a dash.
| Wk | Date | Opponent | Rest edge | Notes | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sep 13 | vs New Orleans Saints | — | — | — |
| 2 | Sep 17 | at Buffalo Bills | — | Thu | — |
| 3 | Sep 27 | vs New York Jets | +3 | — | — |
| 4 | Oct 4 | at Carolina Panthers | — | — | — |
| 5 | Oct 11 | at Arizona Cardinals | — | — | — |
| 7 | Oct 25 | vs Green Bay Packers | +7 | DIV | — |
| 8 | Nov 1 | vs Minnesota Vikings | — | DIV | — |
| 9 | Nov 8 | at Miami Dolphins | — | — | — |
| 10 | Nov 15 | vs New England Patriots | — | — | — |
| 11 | Nov 22 | vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers | -7 | — | — |
| 12 | Nov 26 | vs Chicago Bears | — | DIV Thu | — |
| 13 | Dec 6 | at Atlanta Falcons | +3 | — | — |
| 14 | Dec 13 | vs Tennessee Titans | — | — | — |
| 15 | Dec 20 | at Minnesota Vikings | -3 | DIV | — |
| 16 | Dec 28 | vs New York Giants | — | Mon | — |
| 17 | Jan 3 | at Chicago Bears | -3 | DIV | — |
| 18 | Jan 10 | at Green Bay Packers | +1 | DIV | — |
Final record 9–8, 481 points scored against 413 allowed (+68). Home 5–3, road 4–5. One-score games (decided by 8 or fewer): 3–5 — the split most likely to regress either way, per the Pythagorean explainer.
Across the 27 seasons in our game log the franchise is 175–260–2 (.403). Best season in the window: 2024 (15–2); leanest: 2008 (0–16). Franchise moves are joined under the current code (DET), so older seasons include predecessor cities where applicable.
Sources: nflverse public game log bundled at data/games.csv (schedule, rest, and results; retrieved July 2026 — in-season updates refresh this page's results column). No projections, no invented numbers: this page reports the schedule and the record, and links the analysis.