Coming off a 6-10 season and currently sitting in the basement of the NFC North, the Detroit Lions can use every advantage they can get. And with the recent release of the 2019 regular season schedule, the Lions benefited in a couple different ways.
Along with playing their normal divisional rivals twice, Detroit was already locked into playing opponents from both the NFC East and the AFC West in 2019 regardless of their previous standings. But their poor record from last season did mean they’d get to face the last place finishers in the both the NFC West (3-13 Arizona Cardinals) and the NFC South (5-11 Tampa Bay Buccaneers).