They didn’t max out on prime time games, but the Detroit Lions will be one of the NFL’s biggest media darlings in 2024.

The Lions, coming off a 12-5 season and one of the favorites to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl, have five prime time games this fall, plus their annual Thanksgiving game and three more nationally televised 4:25 p.m. starts.

The Lions will play games aired by five of the NFL’s six broadcast partners — all but the league’s new Christmas Day partnership with Netflix — and they join the rest of last year’s conference finalists in opening the season in prime time.

In Week 1, the Lions will face Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams, the team they beat in their first ever home playoff game at Ford Field in January. The game is one of at least two Sunday night games the Lions will play this fall, along with a Week 10 game at the Houston Texans.

Teams can be scheduled in up to six primetime games per season, and can be flexed into additional games late in the year.

Lions president Rod Wood said at the team’s uniform unveil in April he wasn’t sure if the Lions would get the maximum six prime time games, but that the team was “enticing” to the NFL’s broadcast partners.

“You get six scheduled plus Thanksgiving, technically, and then you can actually be flexed into a seventh,” Wood said. “I think we’ll be towards six.”

SHAWN WINDSOR: One final NFL draft lesson: Detroit's Super Bowl celebration will be epic — someday

Along with Sunday night games against the Rams and Texans on NBC, the Lions host the Seattle Seahawks on Monday night in Week 4 (on ABC), the Green Bay Packers in a Thursday night game Week 14 (Amazon Prime) and visit the San Francisco 49ers in a Monday night game Week 17 (ESPN/ABC) in a rematch of last year’s NFC championship game.

The Lions also host the Chicago Bears on the early Thanksgiving game on CBS, and play in the national afternoon window on both CBS (against the Buffalo Bills in Week 15) and Fox (twice, against the Packers in Week 9 and Dallas Cowboys in Week 6).

This is as good a team as the Lions have had since the 1950s, and the NFL is treating them as such.

Bye-bye rest

The worst part about the Lions’ schedule is a bye that comes too early in the season — the first week of October.

Ideally, teams like their bye weeks in the middle of the season, though the Lions do get a mini-bye in December with back-to-back Thursday games on Thanksgiving and the following week against the Packers.

The Lions benefitted from having a midseason bye last year, when they were one of the healthiest teams in the NFL down the stretch. They’ll play nine straight weeks with no more than six days off between games this fall, a manageable but undesirable stretch.

NEIGHBOR TO THE NORTH: Ex-CFL star Mathieu Betts thankful for second NFL chance with Lions

Short, but not sweet

From a rest standpoint, the schedule makers did the Lions a favor by giving them only one guaranteed meaningful game on a short week — on Thanksgiving against the Bears.

The Lions have a bye after their first Monday night game, and their second Monday nighter is in Week 17. It’s possible they'll have to play an important Week 18 game on short rest, but it’s just as likely the division is sewed up by then and the Lions can manage their regulars if needed before the playoffs.

On the road again

The Lions have three sets of back-to-back road games this season, one each in October, November and December.

All three back-to-backs present their own unique challenges, but December games at the Bears (Dec. 22) and 49ers (Dec. 30) seem like the most treacherous of the pairings. Chicago is a young, talented division opponent and weather could be a factor, while the 49ers should be one of the best teams in the NFL again and that game is bound to have playoff-seeding implications.

JEFF SEIDEL: Jared Goff's big deal with Lions just one more sign of Brad Holmes' golden touch

I’d rank the Packers-Texans back-to-back in November as the second most difficult set of road games. Both teams are coming off playoff appearances, the Packers should challenge the Lions for supremacy in the NFC North, and the games are in the middle of the Lions’ post-bye gauntlet.

The Lions’ third set of back-to-backs against the Cowboys and Vikings comes immediately after their Oct. 6 bye.

Not many soft spots

With a first-place schedule, there aren’t many gimme games for the Lions this season. The Arizona Cardinals in Week 3 won’t be great, but that game’s on the road. The Tennessee Titans (Week 8) won fewer games last season (six) than anyone but the Cardinals on the Lions schedule.

The Lions do have four games (likely) against rookie quarterbacks J.J. McCarthy and Caleb Williams in Minnesota and Chicago, respectively. They get the Vikings the first time early in the season, but McCarthy will have a chance to recalibrate coming off Minnesota’s bye.

Both Bears games are in the second half of the season, when Williams could be making a C.J. Stroud-like push for Offensive Rookie of the Year or fading like Bryce Young.

Set up for a long run?

Overall, the schedule looks manageable. The Lions open with two veteran playoff teams and face a Seattle Seahawks team in late September that’s had their number the past three seasons, so they’re not guaranteed a fast start. But they close with four of six at a home, including a very winnable Week 18 matchup against the Vikings that should give them momentum heading into the playoffs.

If the goal is to be playing the best football late in the season to set the stage for a long playoff run, the Lions are in prime position to do that for the second straight year.

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett.

Mark your calendars

The Lions have five prime-time kickoffs, including two on "Monday Night Football" and one Thursday night game on Amazon. Here's the full regular season schedule:

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: NFL shows Detroit Lions respect; can they make return to playoffs?