Packer Central

Packers Will Kick Off Season at Vikings

The schedule released on Thursday includes prime-time games against New Orleans in Week 3 and Atlanta in Week 4.

Bill Huber

GREEN BAY, Wis. – For all the speculation about how the COVID-19 pandemic could impact the NFL schedule, the Green Bay Packers will open the 2020 season in familiar fashion with back-to-back NFC North clashes for the third consecutive year.

In the schedule unveiled by the team on Thursday evening, the Packers will open the season with a trip to Minnesota to face the rival Vikings. Next, in Week 2, it’s the home opener against the Detroit Lions.

For good measure, the Packers will travel to New Orleans for a showdown against Drew Brees and the Saints in Week 3. That’s a Sunday night game – one of five prime-time matchups for the Packers. One of those is a Thursday night game at San Francisco.

Here’s the schedule:

Week 1: at Minnesota, noon Sunday, Sept. 13. (Fox)

Week 2: Detroit, noon Sunday, Sept. 20 (Fox)

Week 3: at New Orleans, 7:20 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27 (NBC)

Week 4: Atlanta, 7:15 p.m. Monday, Oct. 5 (Gold Pkg.) (ESPN)

Week 5: Bye

Week 6: at Tampa Bay, 3:25 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 18 (Fox)

Week 7: at Houston, noon Sunday, Oct. 25 (Fox)

Week 8: Minnesota, noon Sunday, Nov. 1 (Fox)

Week 9: at San Francisco, 7:20 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5 (Fox/NFL Network/Amazon)

Week 10: Jacksonville, noon Sunday, Nov. 15 (Fox)

Week 11: at Indianapolis, noon Sunday, Nov. 22 (Fox)

Week 12: Chicago, 7:20 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 29 (Gold Pkg.) (NBC)

Week 13: Philadelphia, 3:25 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6 (CBS)

Week 14: at Detroit, noon Sunday, Dec. 13 (Fox)

Week 15: Carolina, TBA either Dec. 19 or Dec. 20 (TBA)

Week 16: Tennessee, 7:20 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 27 (NBC)

Week 17: at Chicago, noon Sunday, Jan. 3. (Fox)

(Flexible schedule begins after the bye week. The only game set in stone at that point is the Thursday night game against the 49ers.)

Green Bay hasn’t opened the season against Minnesota since 2008 – Aaron Rodgers’ first career start. The previous six season-opening matchups between the border rivals were played in Green Bay. The teams split those games.

The Packers’ bye falls on Week 5, which will give them an extra week to get ready for a Week 6 game at Tampa Bay, which is led by new quarterback Tom Brady.

Last year, thanks to a stretch of five home games in six weeks in the first half of the season, the Packers played six of their final nine games away from Lambeau Field. In the second half of the upcoming season, the Packers will play five home games in a span of seven weeks before closing the season at Chicago. 

For Green Bay's Gold Package fans, they get prime-time games against Atlanta and Chicago.

If you care about such things, here is the preseason schedule:

Aug. 13-17 Arizona  TBD

Aug. 20-24 Cleveland (Gold Pkg.) 

Aug. 27-30 at New York Giants 

Sept. 3-4 at Kansas City 

All of those games will be televised by the Packers TV Network and Telemundo Wisconsin.

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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