NFL Fans Are Very Confused By Lions-Chiefs Opener, But Should They Be?

If you saw the NFL's announcement that the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs would open the 2023 season on Thursday night and thought to yourself, 'this must be a fake account,' you weren't alone.

Nope -- it's not #fakenews on Elon's lawless Twitter app. It wasn't a typo from the league office. Roger Goodell is currently NOT being held hostage -- as far as I know.

The NFL schedule-makers really did look at all the possibilities, all the teams the Chiefs could have opened with, and said the Detroit Lions would be the best bet. The biggest draw. The money-maker.

And it went EXACTLY as one would think when the news hit the internet streets.

NFL didn't have great choices for Chiefs, so they took the Lions

I'll level with you -- I think I'm with the majority on this one ... at least I was at first.

When I saw the news come across my feed, I thought it was a parody account.

I love Dan Campbell. Love the Lions in a sad little brother sort of way. But who in the hell wants to see Jared Goff to start the season?

I think we're all collectively good on Jared Goff, right? Like, it's been enough of Goff at this point. He was cool with the Rams for like 12 games and has been decent with the Lions, but he ain't exactly moving the needle.

Now, to be fair, the NFL probably doesn't need much help moving the needle for the first game of the season. They are the undisputed kings of the world, and they know it. Why waste any of your good bullets for a game that everyone's going to watch?

So, to some degree, I get it. Upon further review of the possible opponents, I'm not sure the NFL had that many great options, either.

Jared Goff vs. Patrick Mahomes was cool years ago, but will it work again? (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

Besides the Lions and the three other AFC West teams (Raiders, Chargers, Broncos), the Chiefs host the Dolphins, Bills, Bengals, Bears, Lions and Eagles this season.

You weren't going to open the same way you closed last season, so that rules out the Eagles. The NFL opted to put the Chiefs-Dolphins game in Germany, the Bengals game on Dec. 31 and the Bills on MNF Week 1 against Aaron Rodgers. Hard to argue any of that, either.

So that leaves you with a divisional game, Justin Fields and the Bears or the Lions. Do we really need more Justin Herbert-Patrick Mahomes on primetime? Feel like that's run it's course.

Personally, I would've gone with Fields vs. Mahomes, but the Lions were fun at times last year, so I reckon it could've been worse.

I'm a little easier to convince than some of the folks on Twitter, though.