Detroit Lions to host Washington Commanders in 2025 NFL playoffs
The Detroit Lions will open the playoffs next week against the Washington Commanders .
The Commanders upset the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, 23-20, to advance to the divisional round of the playoffs for the first time since 2005.
The Lions and the Washington franchise have met three times in the postseason, with Washington winning all three games. Washington beat Detroit in the 1991 NFC championship game, and won wild-card games in the 1999 and strike-shortened 1982 seasons.
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The Lions won a franchise-record 15 games in the regular season this year and had a bye through this week's wild-card round.
Lions coach Dan Campbell gave players the weekend off after a Thursday practice, and said he and his staff would not do much early prep work on their potential divisional-round opponents.
As the 1-seed, the Lions had four possible opponents for next week: The Green Bay Packers , Washington Commanders, Los Angeles Rams or Minnesota Vikings . The seventh-seeded Packers lost to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, 22-10. The sixth-seeded Commanders beat the Buccaneers, though, to set the field, with the winner of Monday's 4/5 game betweent the L.A. Rams and Minnesota Vikings (to be played in Glendale, Arizona, due to the wildfires in the LA area) heading to Philly.
"'It's really tough, cause here’s what I don’t want to do, and I’ve been a part of it as a player and a coach, you don’t know who you’re playing so then you ... do leg work on another opponent and then you find out it’s not that opponent," Campbell said. "My plan is to give them off three days this weekend, refresh, get your sleep, get your rest, we’re going to know hopefully by Sunday night, and then we come in and we’ll know the opponent. And then we are full force on that, full game plan, we’ll know who we face."
The Lions faced three of their potential four opponents in the regular season, sweeping the Packers and Vikings and beating the Rams in the season opener. The Commanders, who finished 12-5 and in second place in the NFC East, were the only potential opponent the Lions did not face.
Washington, coming off a 4-13 season in 2023, won its final five games in the regular season to complete the biggest turnaround in the NFL this year. Quarterback Jayden Daniels , the No. 2 pick in last year's draft, is the presumptive Offensive Rookie of the Year after passing for 3,568 yards and 25 touchdowns and running for 891 yards and six touchdowns, and the Commanders finished fifth in the NFL in scoring (28.5 points per game).
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The Lions advanced to the NFC championship game last season, but blew a 17-point halftime lead in the game and lost to the San Francisco 49ers , 34-31.
Safety Ifeatu Melifonwu said the Lions have their eyes on making the Super Bowl this year.
"Obviously that's the goal, but you can't get there if you look past the first game," he said. "So that's just my thought process. And then obviously, I’ll watch the games, but once we find out who we're playing is when I'm going to lock in and go back and watch tape on them."
Running back David Montgomery is expected back for the Lions next week after missing the past three games with a knee injury.
Dave Birkett is the author of the new book, " Detroit Lions : An Illustrated Timeline.”
Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com . Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Who do Detroit Lions play in NFL playoffs 2025? Rams or Vikings
