Aaron Rodgers might be gone, but the entire country will get a firsthand look at the Detroit Lions’ two games with the Green Bay Packers during the 2023 season.
According to multiple reports of schedule leaks, the Lions and Packers will meet on Thursday Night Football in Week 4 in Green Bay. Then the division foes will clash again on Thanksgiving Day at Ford Field.
The initial Thursday tilt on Sept. 28 would be Detroit’s second Thursday night game of the season, following the league’s season-opener on Sept. 7, against the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs in Kansas City. It will mark just the second and third appearances for the Lions on Thursday Night Football, which became a full-time component of the league’s schedule in 2012.
Lions fans have spent the past several years trying to forget the team’s previous Thursday night appearance, in 2015, when Rodgers connected on a 61-yard Hail Mary on an untimed down following a controversial facemask penalty, giving the Packers a 27-23 victory and squashing Detroit’s slim playoff hopes that season.
The Thanksgiving matchup, scheduled for Nov. 23, will mark the 22nd time the Lions and Packers have played each other on the holiday, but first since 2013. The 22 meetings are the most between any two teams on Thanksgiving.
The Packers will be entering a new era post-Rodgers, who was traded to the New York Jets last month. The team will be led by Jordan Love in 2023, a first-round pick in the 2020 draft. In his first two seasons, Love has started just one game and thrown fewer than 100 passes.
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers
We’re offering a great rate on digital subscriptions. Click here.