As a perennial contender, the Buffalo Bills have found themselves front and center for many of the league's headline matchups, and this upcoming season is no different. Here are some important details you need to know about the slate that lies in front of head coach Sean McDermott's team.

1 – Ravens playoff rematch opener

Buffalo's season starts with a bang, as they play host on NBC's Sunday Night Football in Week 1 (Sept. 7^th – 8:20 pm). And they square off against the team they narrowly defeated in last year's AFC Divisional Playoff, the Baltimore Ravens.

NFL Vice President of Broadcast Planning, Mike North, said at the outset of their planning there were a number of potential destinations for this matchup.

"That matchup lived in about 30 different homes," said North. "It's a matchup of the two most recent MVPs and will likely have major playoff implications. We looked at schedules where that game was in Week 17, Week 1, Sunday night, Monday night, a 4:25 CBS doubleheader game. Once it landed on Sunday night of Week 1 and we saw the rest of the Sunday night schedule, the Bills schedule, the Ravens schedule, it felt like a really good Week 1 continuation of what's going to be a phenomenal set of storylines and felt like it belonged."

Buffalo last played the Ravens in a season opener in 2018, but that game took place in Baltimore.

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2 – Heavy primetime slate early

The home opener isn't the only early season game in which the Bills will appear in primetime. Buffalo will host two more primetime games before the leaves on the trees are changing, followed by another on the road.

In Week 3 (Sept. 18^th), they welcome division rival Miami for a Thursday night matchup on Amazon Prime for an 8:15 pm kickoff. Two weeks later they host another AFC East foe, New England for another Sunday Night Football tilt (Oct. 5^th – 8:20 pm).

And eight days later the Bills travel to Atlanta to face the Falcons on Monday Night Football (Oct. 13^th – 7:15 pm) making it four primetime games in the first six weeks of the season.

The early primetime slate is similar to Buffalo's schedule last season when they also had four primetime games in the first six weeks including three in a row from Week 2 to Week 4.

Since 2020, the Bills have the fourth best record in the league in primetime games with a mark of 18-7 (.720).

3 – Big 4:25 pm window games late

As much attention as primetime games garner, if you ask the networks, they'll tell you the time slot they wish to position the most attractive games is the 4:25 pm national window, which typically draws the highest ratings in the regular season.

The Bills find themselves in four such games this coming season with two airing on CBS and two on FOX. But all of them are Week 9 or later.

The first, in Week 9 (Nov. 2^nd) is a familiar foe as the Kansas City Chiefs return to Highmark Stadium for a 4:25 pm kickoff (CBS). Buffalo has beaten the Chiefs in each of their last four regular season meetings, but Kansas City has taken each of the last postseason matchups with the Bills. It's the 10^th time the Bills and Chiefs will square off since 2020.

Last year, the Bills and Chiefs met in Week 11, also a 4:25 pm window game on CBS and drew a record-breaking 31.2 million viewers. It was the most-watched regular season game since 2007, excluding Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve games. The game was also the fourth-most watched game in a national broadcast window dating back to 1988.

"The truth is that the 4:25 pm window is still our most watched window," said North. "It's hard to duplicate those numbers in primetime when we get to 11 pm Eastern time because people have to go to sleep because they have work the next day. That 4:25 pm window is still our high-water mark. Every weekend we try to make sure it feels like there's a big game sitting there on a Sunday afternoon at 4:30. And having the Bills in four of those is a testament to the brand and the star power of the quarterback. I'll have to check, but I don't think anyone has more 4:25 pm games than the Bills this year."

Buffalo's next two 4:25 pm games come back-to-back in Week 13 at Pittsburgh (Nov. 30^th - CBS) and Week 14 vs. Cincinnati (Dec. 7^th - FOX).

The final 4:25 pm game is in Week 17 against the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles (Dec. 28^th – FOX).

Buffalo appeared in three 4:25 pm national window games last season from Weeks 11 through 15 going 2-1 in those matchups with wins over the Chiefs and Lions.

4 – Big time contenders spread out

Knowing Buffalo's 2025 opponents well in advance of the schedule release, many Bills fans were aware the home slate would prove very challenging with last year's two Super Bowl participants (Kansas City, Philadelphia) and Baltimore on the docket. NFC playoff team Tampa Bay and Cincinnati were also part of the home schedule.

The good news is the schedule makers have spread out those formidable opponents on the Bills calendar.

After the opener against the defending AFC North champion Ravens, they don't face another playoff team from last season until Week 9 in the Chiefs. Then it's another two weeks before the Bucs (Week 11 – Nov. 16^th – 1 pm). Three weeks later it's the Bengals at Highmark Stadium (Week 14 – Dec. 7^th – 4:25 pm) followed by another three week break before they tangle with the defending Super Bowl champs (Week 17 – Dec. 28^th – 4:25 pm).

Last season, Buffalo had a gauntlet of opponents from Weeks 11 through 15 with the two Super Bowl participants, Kansas City and San Francisco, followed by the Rams and Lions on the road.

5 – Farewell Week 18 game TBD vs. Jets

The Bills organization has plenty of plans in place to send Highmark Stadium out in style in its farewell season. The schedule makers have Week 18 as the last scheduled regular season game in the historic venue for the Bills, but the date and time are to be determined.

The last few years Week 18 games do not have set dates and times to allow the league to position the most attractive games in primetime as we saw at the end of the 2023 season when the Bills played the Dolphins in Miami in Week 18 for the AFC East title in primetime.

This season Buffalo will face one of their oldest division rivals, the New York Jets. The Bills finished their first regular season in Highmark Stadium in 1973 against the New York Jets, a 34-14 victory for Buffalo. So, it seems fitting that the final regular season game in their final season at Highmark Stadium has them squaring off with the Jets once again.

"We were certainly cognizant when we started this process that one storyline that should get the attention it deserved was the closing of the Bills stadium," North said. "Given this unique set of circumstances with the Bills and their building we wanted a Week 18 home game there. And in Week 18 it has to be a division opponent. A Jets-Bills game feels like the right way to give that building a proper send off."

Hopefully there are home playoff games to follow to extend our long goodbye to the place the Bills have called home for 53 years.

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6 – Three straight at home early

Under Sean McDermott, the Bills have consistently started the season strong posting a 3-1 record or better in each of the last five years. The early part of the 2025 campaign looks to play favorably into continuing that trend for Buffalo.

Between Weeks 3 and 5, the Bills have three consecutive home games against Miami, New Orleans, and New England. Buffalo has not had three straight home games, played in Orchard Park, on their schedule since 2019. In 2023 they had three straight home games, but one was played in London at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Combined with their Week 1 home opener, Buffalo will enjoy a lot of home cooking with four of their first five games in Orchard Park.

The Bills have not had four of their first five games at home since 1993, which was also the last time Buffalo reached the Super Bowl after a 4-1 start in those first five games.

7 – Division opponents bunched early, far apart late

The last several years the league's schedule makers have made a point of front loading and back loading division opponents on team schedules. The aim was to have important games, especially at the end of the season when such games could most directly impact division titles for playoff seeding.

That is not the case for the Bills 2025 schedule.

While Buffalo will play each of their three AFC East rivals in the first five weeks of the season, Miami, New England and New York are all spread out on the back half of the schedule.

The rematch at Miami is in Week 10 (Nov. 9th – 1 pm – CBS) and their second matchup with New England is Week 15 (Dec. 14^th – 1 pm – CBS). The Bills have just one division game in the last three weeks of the season, with that being the regular season finale against the Jets (Week 18).

So, after playing all three division teams the first time in the span of 21 days, they have almost a month between each of the dates where they play their AFC East rivals a second time.

Buffalo along with the rest of the AFC East will be wearing newly designed Rivalries uniforms in one game on the schedule against a division opponent, with that date still to be determined. Each team's unique Rivalries uniform will be extensively rooted with local community insights and history that only that team's city embodies. The new uniforms will be part of the team's rotation for three years after introduction this season.

8 – No holiday games

Being one of the top contending teams in the league the last several years, it was thought the Bills would be a prime candidate for a holiday game for either of the triple header slates on Thanksgiving or Christmas Day.

But Buffalo will not be featured on either of the holidays for the third straight year. North explained why that happened.

"We absolutely saw schedules with the Bills hosting on Christmas," North admitted. "There's no two ways around it. Our Bills-Cincinnati game was almost a Christmas day game. The Bills-Eagles game is in Week 17, and was a possibility on Christmas, but ended up landing three days later on the 28^th. The challenge is Christmas is on a short week, and every team can play a maximum of two short week games. If we were going to use Buffalo on Christmas, unless we used them on Amazon that day, then one of their short weeks was probably going to be on Netflix on Christmas. Amazon would've then had only one Buffalo game on Thursday night.

"What Amazon is strategic about is the teams they get to have on their schedule twice. It's rare for Amazon to get Dallas or Kansas City twice, so after that it's probably Buffalo and Philly right now. So, Amazon got Buffalo and Philly twice. It really strengthens their schedule. So, we used both of those teams for multiple short weeks for Amazon rather than on Thanksgiving or Christmas. Did we consider Buffalo for Christmas? We absolutely did."

The Bills haven't played on a holiday since the 2022 season when they had a comeback win at Detroit on Thanksgiving.

9 – Everybody eats

As we've mentioned already, the Bills are a hot commodity for the television networks and streaming platforms. They've won five straight division titles and won at least one playoff game each of the last five years and appeared in a pair of AFC Championship games.

They also have the reigning NFL MVP at quarterback in Josh Allen.

So, it's no surprise that just about every television network and streaming service gets a piece of the Bills.

Buffalo will appear on Amazon Prime (twice), CBS (at least eight times), ABC/ESPN (once), FOX (three times), and NBC (twice). The only outfit that will not carry a Bills game this season is Netflix, which has two of the three Christmas Day games, and YouTube, which is broadcasting the Sao Paulo, Brazil game on Friday of Week 1 this season.

"There's a strategic approach to each of the network partner's schedules," said North. "A Sunday night game early on NBC is great for NBC. A Thursday night game early for Amazon in Week 3, that's a win for them. The game on ESPN, the Monday nighter… every Network likes to get that taste of Buffalo nice and early. And then hopefully you can hold onto a couple of good games for late in the season in national windows. Late in the year with the two FOX doubleheaders with Cincinnati and Philadelphia, you feel good about those as well. So, we did what we could to spread out the Bills national games for our network partners."