Bills 2025 Schedule Early Thoughts

[corta765]

The cobwebs are coming off as we finally start entering the new NFL year. I took a bit of a hiatus just to refresh and restart for a new year and I am back for some schedule fun.  I will cover more NFL related schedule news in early April but for the Bills the schedule is slowly being cast on this upcoming season and how the schedule shakes down. For starters the Bills have 9 home games this year and 8 away games, their opponents are as followed:

 

Home: Miami, New England, NY Jets, KC, Philly, Bal, Cin, Tampa, New Orleans

Away: Miami, New England, NY Jets, Car, Atl, Hou, Pit, Cle

 

The home schedule is basically hellfire or games they should be favored. You can expect that KC/PHI/BAL/CIN & maybe TB will all receive some type of marquee viewership whether it be at 4pm or a night game. Please remember the NFL considers any game not at 1pm to be national type games which is how KCvBUF has been at 4:25 CBS for 3 straight years now. With this being the last year at the the Ralph I would expect some attention to be given to that especially week 17 or 18 to close out the regular season finale at the Ralph in style. 

 

The road schedule on the other hand is relatively favorable with HOU being the main challenge while ATL, CAR, & PIT could be feisty. Even though Diggs is probably gone I could see HOU being a primetime candidate again this year.  CAR/ATL feel like games later in the season that the NFL could flex as despite the improvement by Bryce Young I am not sure the NFL gambles and puts them into primetime & ATL is a toss up on what you get although they are a major market that seemingly gets a few primetime games in the first half of every year. For 1 pm start time fans there is not a single games that requires a 4pm start as the only game west of Cleveland is Houston otherwise the rest of the away schedule is all in the eastern time zone.

 

One thing I am curious with is how much the NFL schedules division games for the Bills in primetime. In the prior few years the league certainly made an emphasis on the Bills getting night games against MIA or NYJ as the thought was they would challenge or win the division. Right now the division feels like Buffalo and then everyone else as MIA is unpredictable and possibly stalling out with McDaniel, the Jets are rebuilding again and seem committed to starting Tyrod as their QB while maybe drafting a rookie, & New England may be the greatest upside with Maye but still need a lot of talent added to their rebuild. Anything is possible with the schedule but I would guess the Bills play a token divisional night game on TNF or MNF and then finish at home vs Miami on the chance they rebound this year to make a division race.

 

The big bugaboo for the Bills is the potential of going overseas this season. Buffalo is not sacrificing a road game in 2025, but the NFL has seven different games global this year and the Bills are opponents of four of those seven teams this season (at CLE London, at PIT Ireland, at MIA Madrid, & at NYJ London). The NFL has not yet made a divisional matchup a game abroad, but that still leaves CLE and PIT as possible opponents. There has been rumors of the Bills in Ireland against Pittsburgh already and the two teams have a shared history with their coaches. I think the Bills have a sizable chance of going abroad this year as their profile as a team is a major draw and with Josh winning MVP I can easily see the NFL using that for marketing.

 

On the plus side for those fans of 1 pm start times I think you can count on getting some back this year. Last year was a perfect storm as playing the NFCW meant many 4pm games (or at night) and then the mix of marquee opponents and even being flexed into 4pm to watch Josh ended up leaving Bills fans with 10 games that were at 4pm or later. The Bills are still going to get a sizable amount of games that are either 4pm or at night, but instead of 10 games it may be more like 7 this year. With the home schedule being what it is some season ticket holders will probably be annoyed with the prospect 2-3 night games and 1-2 4pm games again this year though.

Finally the holiday's will see the NFL have a game again on Black Friday and with Christmas day on Thursday I would expect games on Christmas day and possibly even a game on the Dec 26th to maximize viewership (NFL has been rumored to throw a game on the 26th this year). Buffalo has been on Thanksgiving a few times this in years prior, but their only chance on that day would be the night time spot at 8:25 as we are not at DAL or DET. With that said the Bills have avoided playing Black Friday or Christmas for years and it does feel like their time may finally be arriving to be one of those teams. The Christmas Day games have been more marquee matchups whereas the first two Black Friday games were NYJ v MIA and KC v Raiders which are not exactly murders row type matchups. Kansas City played both abroad and on Christmas day in 2023 so just because the Bills are overseas or on the holiday would not preclude them from appearing in the other. Also of the big 3 QBs (Mahomes Josh & Lamar) only Josh has not played on Christmas the last two seasons so it feels like we may be due for that.

 

That is an early look at how things shake down for the Bills viewing schedule in 2025-26. Remember the max a team can be put in for night games is 6, but the NFL considers games overseas, XMAS, Thanksgiving to all be primetime also for a team. Free agency and the draft always adds wrinkles into possible schedule matchups although last year Diggs going to HOU did not result in a primetime Bills game. The NFL is also a prove it league as Mike North (NFL schedule czar) has expressed many times over the years; if you want to be on primetime you play your way on. The Bills are a marquee draw and consistently good one for the league in ratings so predicting the upcoming year has honestly gotten easier because of this. For the sake of fun I will give my predictions on primetime type matchups as I think the Bills get 5 night games a game abroad and 2 4pm games:

 

SNF Kansas City

MNF Baltimore

TNF  at NE

MNF at ATL

Xmas Day/26th CIN

 

4pm PHI

4pm at HOU

 

at Ireland vs PIT

 

[gmanbfan]

Schedule release day might be my favorite day of the off season calendar! 

 

I think CBS will do everything it can to keep the KC game, so KC@BUF will be a 4:25pm start in Orchard Park.

 

So many good home matchups for the Bills that the league will want in Primetime.  Cincy at Buffalo seems like a Monday Nighter.  Fox will want the Philly game for a 4:25pm start on their network. 

 

A divisional Thursday night primetime matchup (NE or MIA) on the road would work.  And I think Baltimore at Buffalo on Christmas.

 

Seeing it's the last season at Highmark, happy that no home games have been stripped from us this year (as of yet), and yes, I think Buffalo in Ireland against Pittsburgh makes too much sense.

 

9 Home games to enjoy the last season at Highmark!  And hopefully two playoff matches too

[corta765]

29 minutes ago, gmanbfan said:

Schedule release day might be my favorite day of the off season calendar! 

 

I think CBS will do everything it can to keep the KC game, so KC@BUF will be a 4:25pm start in Orchard Park.

 

So many good home matchups for the Bills that the league will want in Primetime.  Cincy at Buffalo seems like a Monday Nighter.  Fox will want the Philly game for a 4:25pm start on their network. 

 

A divisional Thursday night primetime matchup (NE or MIA) on the road would work.  And I think Baltimore at Buffalo on Christmas.

 

Seeing it's the last season at Highmark, happy that no home games have been stripped from us this year (as of yet), and yes, I think Buffalo in Ireland against Pittsburgh makes too much sense.

 

9 Home games to enjoy the last season at Highmark!  And hopefully two playoff matches too

CBS has protected that KC game for years and I think finally it goes MNF as that is only broadcast that hasn’t received it yet. 
 

BAL has been on Xmas last two years I can see the NFL giving the day off this year which is why I did CIN

Edited 7 hours ago by corta765

[Coach Tuesday]

Someone posted on good authority that we are not going to Ireland.

[corta765]

3 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

Someone posted on good authority that we are not going to Ireland.

At one point everyone thought it was GB PIT. That no longer is the case and I’ve seen nothing saying the Bills aren’t in it.

[Coach Tuesday]

Just now, corta765 said:

At one point everyone thought it was GB PIT. That no longer is the case and I’ve seen nothing saying the Bills aren’t in it.

I’m just telling you, a good longtime poster claimed to have it on good authority that it’s not us.  Don’t recall who it was.  Maybe it was @Kirby Jackson?

[eball]

I’m thinking the Rich/Ralph/Highnark finale is going to be the Fish. 
 

[gmanbfan]

16 minutes ago, eball said:

I’m thinking the Rich/Ralph/Highnark finale is going to be the Fish. 
 

It'll be interesting as they could schedule this game for the season finale, but most likely won't be the last game at Rich/Ralph/NewEra/Highmark if there's a home playoff game.  My only hope is that the last game will be AFC championship game, and the first game an new Highmark will be Thursday night season opener

[djp14150]

1 hour ago, corta765 said:

The cobwebs are coming off as we finally start entering the new NFL year. I took a bit of a hiatus just to refresh and restart for a new year and I am back for some schedule fun.  I will cover more NFL related schedule news in early April but for the Bills the schedule is slowly being cast on this upcoming season and how the schedule shakes down. For starters the Bills have 9 home games this year and 8 away games, their opponents are as followed:

 

Home: Miami, New England, NY Jets, KC, Philly, Bal, Cin, Tampa, New Orleans

Away: Miami, New England, NY Jets, Car, Atl, Hou, Pit, Cle

 

 

 

SNF Kansas City

MNF Baltimore

TNF  at NE

MNF at ATL

Xmas Day/26th CIN

 

4pm PHI

4pm at HOU

 

at Ireland vs PIT

 

I see

 

 chiefs  On ESPN — why— I think chiefs- eagles rematch on nbc— these could be flipped between espn and nbc 

Baltimore on 425 solo slot CBS

Philly game at 425 on FOX

Buffalo at Atlanta on ESPN 

 

Cincinnati at Buffalo or buffalo at Houston/ Miami  thxgvg night NBC   tampa bay at Detroit on thxgvg 

tampa bay at buffalo week before or after on Amazon 

 

Buffalo at hou/ Miami on nbc/ espn or Cincy st buffalo on nbc/ espn

 

buffalo at Pitt in dublin

 

Miami atBuffalo week 17 (CBS only if Buffalo at Miami on prime time— if not then this can flex to Saturday 

Buffalo at NE/ Jets week 18

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[26TrapDraw]

43 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

Someone posted on good authority that we are not going to Ireland.

Jaysus Maree an Josuff!

[nosejob]

I don't know about all this, but I'm sure it will cost to stream every damn game. I'm gonna have to find a back road bar with wing deals.

[chongli]

3 hours ago, corta765 said:

 

The home schedule is basically hellfire or games they should be favored. You can expect that KC/PHI/BAL/CIN & maybe TB will all receive some type of marquee viewership whether it be at 4pm or a night game. Please remember the NFL considers any game not at 1pm to be national type games

 

Thanks for the detailed and well thought out post.

 

I have a few minor disagreements:

 

The Bills, at this point, will not be favored at home vs. Philly and maybe Baltimore.

 

Only the featured 4:25 game on the DH network is considered national. The SH network's games are regional and start at 4:05. It could be something like Carolina at Las Vegas, due to CT and PT teams having to start in the 4 PM slot.

 

Oh, and teams can be flexed into primetime games to get more than the allowable six, plus a Week 18 flex too.

Edited 6 hours ago by chongli

[The Firebaugh Kid]

13-4.

10-0 at home last season. 

[RiotAct]

gotta think that Josh finally winning MVP will likely get us another primetime game over what we would’ve already gotten.

[Success]

As long as we beat the Pats twice, I'm good.

 

[boyst]

If this bills don't go abroad in '25 they definitely will in '26.

 

Let's hope it's Canada.

[Mike in Horseheads]

31 minutes ago, boyst said:

If this bills don't go abroad in '25 they definitely will in '26.

 

Let's hope it's Canada.

Is Canada designated to get a game? 

[SoonerBillsFan]

I have no idea until we know what the makeup of this teamvis going to be.

[PonyBoy]

1 hour ago, Success said:

As long as we beat the Pats twice, I'm good.

 

 

Dolphins too!!!!!!!

Hate that faux fan base! 

[BruceVilanch]

2 hours ago, Coach Tuesday said:

Someone posted on good authority that we are not going to Ireland.

High level meeting??