Detroit Lions clinch last place in NFC North

With Sunday’s loss against the Minnesota Vikings—their ninth on the season and sixth in a row—the Detroit Lions have clinched last place in the NFC North. They can finish no better than 6-9-1, while every other team in the division already has their seventh win.

This will be the second-consecutive year the Lions will finish in the basement of their division under head coach Matt Patricia. Before Patricia arrived, the Lions hadn’t finished last in the North since 2012, under Jim Schwartz.

Now that the Lions are guaranteed to finish fourth in their division, we now know a little more about their 2020 schedule. Their opponents for 14 of 16 games are already set, but the two unknown teams are the NFC East and NFC West teams that finish in the same place in their respective divisions. As of now, that would mean hosting the New York Giants (if they stay below Washington) and heading to Arizona for another matchup against the Cardinals.

In addition to clinching a last-place finish, the Lions also moved to fifth in the 2020 NFL Draft order after the Atlanta Falcons picked up their fourth win of the season.