The New Orleans Saints travel to take on the Detroit Lions in Week 1 on September 13, 2026 at 12:00 pm on FOX. The Saints visit Detroit on the road for the first time since 2020 with the team coming away with a 35-29 victory in their last contest at Ford Field.
Let's take a deeper look at the Saints' Week 1 opponent, the Detroit Lions:
2026 NFL WEEK 1: NEW ORLEANS SAINTS at DETROIT LIONS
Meet your Saints opponent: Detroit Lions
Coach: Dan Campbell
Quarterback: Jared Goff
2025 record: 9-8, third in NFC North
Most recent regular season matchup: Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023 - Lions 33, Saints 28
Lions-Saints series record: Saints lead 14-13-1 (including one postseason game)
Detroit Lions 2025 season recap:
Coming off a 15-2 season, the Lions failed to recapture their 2024 success in the 2025 season. While the Lions started the season strong with a 4-1 start, they would alternate wins and losses and sit at 8-5 after Week 14. In striking distance of a playoff push. However, a three-game losing streak would eliminate them from playoff contention. A win in Week 18 helped Detroit conclude the season with a 9-8 record, but they ultimately missed the playoffs after two straight playoff berths in previous seasons.
| 2025 Lions Per Game Stats | League Ranking | |
|---|---|---|
| Scoring Avg. | 28.3 | 4 |
| Opp. Scoring Avg. | 24.3 | 22 |
| Total Off. | 373.2 | 5 |
| Rushing Off. | 120.1 | 14 |
| Passing Off. | 253.1 | 3 |
| Total Def. | 331.9 | 18 |
| Rushing Def. | 114.5 | 14 |
| Passing Def. | 217.4 | 20 |
Deep Dive: Detroit Lions roster review
1. New Look at Tackle Spots
The Lions will have a new look at the bookends of their offensive line for the 2026 campaign. All-Pro Penei Sewell is slated to shift over from right tackle to protecting Jared Goff's blindside at left tackle after the departure of longtime starter Taylor Decker.
To take Sewell's spot on the right side of the line the Lions brought in two players to compete for the role. They used the 17th overall pick in the draft on tackle Blake Miller out of Clemson. Miller started all 54 career games over his four years at Clemson, breaking the school record for career snaps (3,778).
Detroit also as signed veteran Larry Borom who played 16 games including 11 starts with the Miami Dolphins in the 2025 season.
2. New Offensive Coordinator Drew Petzing
The Lions brought in Drew Petzing to fill their offensive coordinator role. Petzing spent the last three seasons as the offensive coordinator of the Arizona Cardinals. His offenses with Arizona ranked 24th, 12th and 23rd in scoring.
Petzing said he is not starting from the ground up installing his offense as he'll look to keep elements from the Lions previous offense that helped them to the fourth ranked scoring offense in the NFL in 2025.
"I think it's a mix, a little bit of a unique situation because there's a number of vets who have played at a really high level, so I don't want to come in here and rip it all up and make them learn an entirely new language," Petzing said. "But there's going to be tweaks, there's going to be changes, and I think they've done a great job of handling that."
3. New Running Back Workload
The Lions traded running back David Montgomery to the Houston Texans in the offseason. The Lions expect Pro Bowl running back Jahmyr Gibbs who finished with the fifth most yards from scrimmage in the NFL in 2025 accruing 1,839 rushing and receiving yards and 18 total touchdowns to take on an even larger role.
"I mean he is, he's going to be our bell cow now," Lions head coach Dan Campbell said. "He really became more of that last year, but we're going to hang our hat on him quite a bit. We're going to do a lot of things we feel like he does well."
They also brought in former Kansas City Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco to fill the void left by Montgomery complimenting Gibbs. A physical runner, Pacheco has appeared in 51 games, 42 starts with the Chiefs and tallied 2,537 rushing yards and four touchdowns in four seasons helping the Chiefs to two Super Bowl championships.
