The NFL schedule will officially be announced at 8 p.m. Thursday, but by the time the league gets around to doing that on NFL Network, just about every game will have already been leaked out by various sources.
This season, the Buffalo Bills and all the AFC teams will play at home eight times and be on the road nine as part of the league’s rotating schedule since the 17th game was added in 2022.
In addition to their annual six-game AFC East schedule, the Bills’ crossover division games are against the AFC West and NFC North, plus the second-place finishers in the AFC North, AFC South and NFC West.
At home, they play the Patriots, Dolphins, Jets, Lions, Bears, Chargers, Chiefs and Ravens. On the road they play the Patriots, Dolphins, Jets, Packers, Vikings, Broncos, Raiders, Texans and Rams.
Also, the AFC teams are scheduled to play two preseason games and those will be the first games to take place in Highmark Stadium, both serving as live test runs for the regular-season opener.
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Stay here throughout the next few days for schedule leaks and rumors:
Lions could be Bills’ home opener opponent
The first rumor regarding the Bills surfaced Monday night and it pertains to the first game at the new stadium.
Again, nothing is official, but the leak indicates that the Bills will open the $2 billion venue Sept. 17 on Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football in a Week 2 game against the Detroit Lions.
That would probably mean that Buffalo will play on the road in Week 1 because it seems unlikely the Bills would be given two games at Highmark Stadium just a few days apart to start the season.
All along there has been speculation that the league would put the Bills on the road for Week 1 and then save the home opener for Week 2 to give it a little more attention, not to mention a bit more time to make sure everything is up and running.
And another working theory is that the home opener would be played in primetime, so this leak feels realistic.
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades including 37 years as the full-time beat writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills schedule leaks, rumors tracker: Home opener on Thursday Night
Reporting by Sal Maiorana, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
