Saturday open thread: How many nationally televised games will the Lions get in 2023

The NFL reportedly plans to release the full regular season schedule for every team, including the Detroit Lions, on Thursday, May 11. The Lions’ opponents have been set since January, but now we finally get to see when these matchups will happen, when the Lions will get their bye week and how many nationally televised games they will get.

Last year, the Lions were originally scheduled to have zero nationally televised games if you don’t count Thanksgiving. They eventually worked their way into a “Sunday Night Football” flex in Week 18.

After a strong finish to the 2022 season with a 9-8 record and a lot of hype surrounding this team, I’m expecting a little more national respect this year.

Today’s Question of the Day is...

How many nationally televised games will the Lions have in 2023?

My answer: Three (counting Thanksgiving).

I’m thinking the Lions may finally make another “Thursday Night Football” appearance this year. They obviously get their Thursday game every year for Thanksgiving, but they still have yet to make an appearance on TNF since the unspeakable game.

If not a TNF appearance, then I’m expecting at least one or two “Monday Night Football” games. The Lions won a lot of people over after getting the spotlight on “Hard Knocks” last year, and people are going to want to see more of Dan Campbell, I’m sure. DraftKings currently has Campbell as the favorite to win Coach of the Year as well as the Lions being at near even odds to win the NFC North. I think the NFL will try an capitalize off of the insane hype surrounding this team right now and give them some primetime action in 2023.