The Detroit Lions season still has a ways to go and there’s a good chance that we could be watching Lions’ football in February for the first time in our lives, but 2024 is no longer here. It’s 2025 time and it’s time to take a look at some of the important dates for the Lions this year. Let’s jump into it:
January 6th
Teams can begin signing players from the CFL. The Lions brought in Mathieu Betts last year and drafted Giovanni Manu. It’s safe to say they may be taking a look at who’s out there in Canada.
Teams can also start exercising fifth-year options during this time. We’ll see if the Lions decide to pick up Jameson Williams’ fifth year instead of doing a big deal with him after a season in which he got suspended.
January 11-13
The Wild Card round of the playoffs happens this weekend. We don’t know yet if the Lions will be playing that week.
January 18-19
Here’s the divisional round of the playoffs where the Lions will either start their postseason or keep it going.
January 26th
This is the day both the AFC and NFC Championship games are played.
January 30th
This is the East vs West Shrine Bowl. The Lions will definitely have a contingent of guys on site for this one as they prepare for the draft.
February 1st
The Senior Bowl happens this day and you can bet the Lions will be in the house for this one too. While this is the day the game is, you can really bet on paying a lot of attention to this starting January 27th and the rest of the week leading up to the game.
February 2nd
The Pro Bowl
February 9th
This is Super Bowl Sunday. You have to hope that we’ll all be watching Lions’ football this day.
February 18th
This is when teams can start using the franchise tag on players. The Lions have never done this and they probably don’t plan to start anytime soon.
February 24th-March 3rd
The NFL Combine is going down in Indianapolis. This is a big week to find out who the Lions are interested in draft wise and there will be some free agency questions thrown around too.
March 4th
Deadline to franchise or transition tag players.
March 10th-12th
Make sure you have your notifications on for these two days because this is the legal tampering period in which we find out where tons of free agents are going to sign.
March 12th
At 12:00 on this day the signings become official and make sure you have those notifications still on because there’s going to be a lot happening that day and the following week.
March 30th-April 2nd
League meetings out in Florida. This is the last time you really get o hear from Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes ahead of the NFL Draft. Plus this is the week the Madden scans go down.
April 18th
This is the deadline for restricted free agents to sign their offer sheets. The Lions only have one RFA and it’s Kayode Awosika. Someone they probably are going to want back.
April 21st
Here’s when the Linos can begin offseason workout programs.
April 24th-26th
The 2025 NFL Draft is live from Green Bay this year.
May 1st
This is the deadline for teams to get out their fifth-year options. We’ll know by here what the Jamo plan is.
May 2nd-5th or May 9th-12th
Here is where teams can hold their rookie mini-camp. They can also hold tryouts for players there as well.
Mid-July
This is when training camp will start. Actual dates won’t be known till this summer. OTA’s dates for all three phases won’t be known for a bit as well.
There are other dates out there for some of the deeper things in the league and you can those out here, but these are the ones to really keep an eye on.