The New Orleans Saints walk into Ford Field on Sunday to open the 2026 regular season, and the Detroit Lions are expected to meet them with a roster already dealing with some notable absences.
Detroit enters Week 1 without either of the safeties it opened last season with. Kerby Joseph’s future is still uncertain, while Brian Branch remains on the PUP list after tearing his Achilles in December of last year.
The Lions have tried to cover those losses with veterans Chuck Clark and Avonte Maddox, and the same goes for the offensive line, where center Cade Mays will also sit out after arriving as the team’s big free-agent signing. That leaves Detroit leaning on Juice Scruggs, who came over in the David Montgomery trade.
The good news for the Lions is that none of this is a surprise. Those injuries were known back in early August, which gave the staff time to get the replacements ready for starting duty.
That depth will be tested against a Saints team that could find some openings if Detroit’s biggest questions from camp carry over into the opener. On defense, the issue is how well the Lions can connect their coverage with their pass rush.
They were good enough on third down last season, finishing with the ninth-best third-down conversion rate against in 2025, but they also gave up too many explosive plays on third-and-long. Detroit also finished with the third-worst time to pressure a year ago, though the 53-man roster suggests a more aggressive pass-rush approach this season.
On offense, the spotlight is on a line that Detroit has spent heavily to rebuild. The Lions have long wanted to bully teams up front and use the run game to set up everything else, but that formula slipped last season.
Their run-game success rate dropped from 61.1% in 2024 to 54.7% in 2025. General manager Brad Holmes attacked the issue by signing Cade Mays and drafting Blake Miller in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft, although Mays will not play Sunday.
Even so, this is a home opener rather than the kind of shaky road start Detroit endured last season against the Green Bay Packers.
If the Saints can match Detroit’s physical edge, they can make things uncomfortable. If not, the Lions have enough behind them at Ford Field to make the opener look a lot like the oddsmakers expect.
That’s especially true considering where Dan Campbell’s team stands entering the season. Detroit improved steadily after Campbell arrived in 2021, but last year was a step backward.
The Lions faded late, losing four of their final six games, and finished 9-8. Even so, that record still represented only the ninth winning season Detroit has had since 2000, with four of those coming under Campbell.
So the pressure question is pretty straightforward: if the Lions get back to the playoffs, Campbell’s seat stays “as cool as the peanut butter and jelly sandwich your mother packed on top of the freezer pack for lunch.” If they miss for a second straight year, then things could start to heat up for Detroit’s most successful head coach this century.
There’s also one young Lion worth tracking on Sunday who may not be a national name yet. Sixth-round rookie Skyler Gill-Howard turned heads all summer in Allen Park, and the coaching staff has been high on the defensive line overall.
Gill-Howard is a penetrating tackle with the ability to get skinny and slip through blockers, plus the kind of athleticism that can flash quickly. He could be part of the pass-rush plan right away.
As for the matchup itself, the Saints are listed as 6.5-point underdogs, with Detroit sitting at -340 on FanDuel Sportsbook. The prediction here is Detroit 31, New Orleans 17.
In Other News...
Saints Just Made Another Cap Move Fans Know Too Well
The Saints are back at the familiar business of moving money around, this time by restructuring defensive lineman Nathan Shepherds contract to open up about $2.7 million in cap space for 2026. The maneuver converts part of his base salary into a signing bonus, giving New Orleans a little more breathing room as it tries to manage the roster and stay under next years salary cap.
It is the kind of short-term fix New Orleans has leaned on before, and it does come with a catch. By pushing some of the cost down the road, the Saints will carry more than $7.1 million in dead money in 2027 when Shepherds deal runs out, a reminder that every bit of flexibility now usually comes with a bill later. [Read more 🡒]
Saints Backfield Suddenly Has Trade Buzz Fans Can't Ignore
A hip injury to Malik Davis in Cowboys practice has changed the conversation in Dallas almost overnight, and it has ripple effects that reach all the way to New Orleans. With Dallas suddenly thinner at running back for the foreseeable future, the idea of the Cowboys looking around for help has become a natural talking point, especially with the Saints carrying more backfield depth than they can comfortably use every week.
That is where the trade buzz starts to get interesting for Saints fans, because Alvin Kamara and Kendre Miller have both been mentioned in the speculation. Nothing has been confirmed, and there is still a wide gap between rumor and reality, but the possibility alone is enough to make New Orleans backfield worth watching a little more closely as the market shifts around it. [Read more 🡒]
Saints Fans May Feel Vindicated Watching Paulson Adebo In New York
Paulson Adebos move to New York gave Saints fans a fresh way to judge one of their former draft picks, and the early returns have been uneven. The cornerback, drafted by New Orleans before signing a three-year contract with the Giants, arrived with the kind of pedigree that usually brings expectations with it, but his first season there was rocky in coverage and raised questions about how quickly hed settle in.
John Harbaugh has already made it clear the Giants will sort out playing time by performance, not by salary, and that leaves Adebo in a familiar prove-it spot. He was not listed as a starter on the Week 1 depth chart in his second season, which only adds to the uncertainty around how prominent a role hell have as New York tries to sort out its secondary. [Read more 🡒]