With road games in both Detroit and Dallas on the docket, Green Bay could end up in any of the three Thanksgiving time slots.
The Green Bay Packers are no strangers to playing on Thanksgiving Day. As an NFC team and a longtime divisional rival of the Detroit Lions, they tend to have more opportunities than most other teams across the NFL to end up on the schedule for the uniquely American holiday.
Indeed, the Packers have played on Thanksgiving Day an impressive 38 times, tied with the Chicago Bears for the most of any team other than the Lions or Dallas Cowboys, which have traditionally been the home teams for games on the holiday. Most of those games have found the Packers traveling to Detroit, of course; they played there on Thanksgiving 13 years straight from 1951 to 1963, then again nearly every other year from 2001 to 2013.
The Packers are coming off back-to-back Thanksgiving games the last two seasons, and getting a third straight would be highly unusual. However, based on the opponents that the Packers will play in 2025, this year’s schedule offers every possible opportunity for them to end up playing on the holiday once again this fall: Green Bay of course has a road game in Detroit on the schedule, but they also will play the Dallas Cowboys on the road this year due to the NFC divisional rotation.
That matchup gives Green Bay a chance to play in Dallas on Thanksgiving for the first time in three decades, with the most recent holiday matchup between the two teams coming way back in 1994. Interestingly, the Packers have only played the Cowboys on Thanksgiving twice in the teams’ storied rivalry, with the other game coming in 1970.
There is of course a third possibility for the Packers to play on Thanksgiving, which exists due to the NFL holding a third Thanksgiving game in the evening starting in 2006. The Packers could theoretically end up in that third game instead, which they have participated in twice. Last season, they welcomed the Miami Dolphins into Lambeau Field for that game, and they also hosted the Chicago Bears in 2015.
However, because Green Bay was the host city for the third game just a few months ago, it is unlikely that the NFL would pick them to play in the evening game once again. It is far more realistic for the NFL to relish another chance for an early Packers-Lions matchup to kick off the day or to get a recent playoff rematch between Green Bay and Dallas.
Notably, the Lions and Cowboys have each played divisional games on Thanksgiving each of the last two years, thanks in part to the NFL adding flexibility for the traditional CBS/FOX network scheduling rules. The Lions played Green Bay in 2023 and Chicago in 2024, while Dallas hosted Washington and the New York Giants, respectively. That further suggests that a Packers-Lions game would remain as the most likely scenario if the Packers end up playing on Thanksgiving for a third straight season.
If they do, let’s just hope that whichever TV network showing the game has a turkey ready for Jordan Love, unlike two years ago in Detroit.