UPDATE (Thursday, May 7, 11 a.m. ET): According to MLive's Lions beat writer, Kyle Meinke, Detroit is hosting the NFC North rival Chicago Bears in Week 1.
That would mean the report of AFC teams playing their first four games against NFC opponents in 2020 is incorrect. It's still possible those AFC-NFC matchups could happen early in the season, though, per Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer.
-- End of update --
The New England Patriots have a difficult 2020 schedule, and it looks like they'll be tasked with a few tough matchups right out of the gate.
We'll have to wait until Thursday night to find out the order of the 2020 NFL schedule, but ESPN’s John Clayton said Wednesday on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh that teams will open the season with non-conference matchups for the first four weeks.
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If that's the case, the Patriots' first four matchups will be against the Arizona Cardinals (home), Seattle Seahawks (away), San Francisco 49ers (home) and Los Angeles Rams (away). All four present challenges for New England as well as intriguing storylines -- especially Jimmy Garoppolo's first game back in Foxboro.
The full schedule will be announced at 8 p.m. Thursday. For a full list of the Patriots' 2020 opponents, you can go here.