Campbell: 'It's awesome' Lions don't have prime-time game in 2022

It doesn't bother head coach Dan Campbell that his Detroit Lions are the only NFL team without a prime-time game in 2022.

"It's awesome," Campbell said Saturday. "One-o'clock games. It's awesome - one o'clock. You knock them out, you go home, you get ready for the next opponent. You're not waiting all day in the hotel, all night. Then you're on a short week - it feels like. So, I've got no problem."

All but two of the Lions' games in 2022 are scheduled for 1 p.m. ET. Detroit will also host the Buffalo Bills on Thanksgiving at 12:30 p.m. The NFL hasn't announced the date and time for the team's Week 18 matchup versus the Green Bay Packers.

But Campbell also thinks the Lions might prove the NFL wrong and potentially have one of their contests moved to prime time.

"You can get flexed (Week) 5 to (Week) 15," Campbell added. "Who says we can't get flexed."

Every NFL team must play a Thursday game during the season, which usually results in an appearance on Thursday Night Football. However, the Lions aren't required to compete in a prime-time slot Thursday since they're playing a Thursday matchup on Thanksgiving.

"Unattractive is not the right word," Michael North, the NFL's vice president of broadcast planning and scheduling, said Friday, according to Justin Rogers of The Detroit News.

"We certainly looked at schedules as we searched through the infinite space, somewhere in the 119,000 schedule (options) we looked at, was Detroit on the Monday Night Football schedule? Absolutely, yes."

Detroit didn't have a Pro Bowler on its roster last season, though four Lions players were named Pro Bowl alternates.

The Lions, who played one prime-time contest last year, went 3-13-1 in 2021 - Campbell's first year with the team. It was the club's fourth straight losing campaign.

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