Notes: Detroit Lions have the NFL’s 2nd-fewest travel miles on 2022 schedule

The 2022 NFL schedule will be released in full next Thursday, May 12, but there are already several things we know about the Detroit Lions’ schedule. We know their full home and away split of opponents, we know they will not travel overseas for any international games, and we know—according to last year’s records—it is expected to be one of the easier schedules in the league.

Thanks to some mathematics from Bookies.com’s Bill Speros, there’s also another benefit from the schedule the Lions will enjoy. Per Speros, the Lions will travel just 8,348 miles for road games this season—the second-lowest mileage of any other team this year.

Upon a closer examination of the Lions’ list of opponents, this shouldn’t be much of a surprise. They won’t travel any farther west than Dallas and outside of that game, they only have one other away contest south of New Jersey (vs. Carolina Panthers).

Meanwhile, the Lions will be hosting teams that have to travel quite a bit to get to Detroit, including the Miami Dolphins, Seattle Seahawks, and Jacksonville Jaguars.

Ultimately, talent will matter most, but the Lions will take any little advantage they can get.

• The Detroit Tigers have struggled to an 8-16 record out of the gate, but one local hero is willing to offer his services to help turn the team around:

• Earlier in the week, it was revealed the Lions pissed off the league for turning in their card for Aidan Hutchinson too early on draft night. Lions head coach Dan Campbell told Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, more or less, he doesn’t give a crap.

“Brad said, ‘Turn it in, let’s go,’” Campbell said. “Because we knew we were good, ‘Let’s go, he’s our guy.’ We weren’t going to wait around, and we’re not going to do the whole dog-and-pony show. We got our guy and we turned the card in.”

MLive has more on the story.

• Lions first-round pick Jameson Williams joined Complex Sports’ Spotify Live show on Thursday night, and put to bed any doubts that he wasn’t excited about being in Detroit:

• How many of their needs did the Lions achieve in the offseason? Justin Rogers of The Detroit News runs them down (subscription required).

• If you haven’t seen it yet, Aqib Talib is Nostradamus. He suggested exactly what the Lions ended up doing in NFL Draft during the Lions vs. Cardinals game last season:

• Jeff Risdon of Lions Wire predicts the UDFA most likely to make the Lions’ 53-man roster.