The NFL and the Detroit Lions are making contingency plans for the 2020 season, but they left few clues what those look like with the release of the schedule Thursday.
The Lions open the season with back-to-back NFC North games, have a mid-October bye week and no cluster of non-conference games that easily could be eliminated if the league needs to shorten its season due to the coronavirus pandemic at any point this fall.
Also absent from the schedule: Prime time games.
The Lions don’t have a single Thursday-, Sunday- or Monday-night affair on their schedule after going 3-12-1 last season and losing starting quarterback Matthew Stafford for most of November and December to a back injury.