Highmark Stadium is getting one more finishing touch before the Bills play in the 2026 home opener against the Lions: a brand-new field of grass.
Beneath the lights, fans and festivities of the Sept. 17 home opener, a carefully prepared field will be waiting for them. The Buffalo Bills grounds crew is replacing the grass and re-sodding the playing surface ahead of Buffalo's first game at its new home, a process designed to deliver a field worthy of the occasion.
For fans, it will look like one final finishing touch on a brand-new stadium. For the Bills' grounds crew, it is part of a much larger and precise process worthy of explaining.
Replacing the field at Highmark Stadium may seem like a major undertaking, particularly for a surface installed almost a full year ago. But for NFL teams that play on natural grass, re-sodding is a routine part of maintaining a playing surface throughout the season.
"We chose to re-sod because we were not happy with the way the current field was performing," said Aaron Ramella, Bills senior director of fields and grounds. "Until we can get a full season of play on the field, we will continually be learning and correcting what we do to the field."
The Bills brought in a consultant from the NFL and an independent consultant to review the playing field during Buffalo's preseason game against the Steelers. The surface was deemed safe and playable, but after seeing the grass become too thin in certain areas, the Bills made the decision on their own to replace it ahead of the regular season.
The schedule also works in Buffalo's favor to replace it now, as opposed to early in the season.
"We're committed to having the best possible playing surface for our players. With a stretch of three consecutive home games early in the season, we decided it was the appropriate time to re-sod our field," said Pete Guelli, Bills president of business operations. "We will continue to monitor the field and every aspect of our new stadium to ensure it is the best possible experience for our players and fans."
When the Bills announced that Highmark Stadium would be natural grass instead of turf, Ramella and his crew knew that the field would have to be replaced during the season. The variable in this specific case is the timing.
"We knew eventually we were going to have to replace the grass. It was a little bit sooner than we had hoped, but this isn't a surprise for us. We knew eventually the grass was going to break down," Ramella said.
Back in October 2025, the Bills laid the first sod at Highmark Stadium— natural Kentucky bluegrass cultivated by Tuckahoe Turf Farms in New Jersey. Because the original grass had 10 months between installation and the 2026 Blue & Red practice, the Bills opted to go for a thinner cut with the plan to maintain it in a way that helps it grow thicker in the spring and summer.
"We were going to build up some layers, which in theory was the right thing to do. But the grass just didn't knit together as well as we hoped. We were getting root depth, but it just wasn't growing laterally as well as expected," Ramella explained.
The roots were growing down into the soil without creating the same level of horizontal connection between plants, making portions of the surface more susceptible to tearing and coming up in chunks.
"When the players were hitting the ground, we were getting pushes, and that's not what we wanted," Ramella said.
For the new sod, the Bills are using the same farm, just from a different field with a different thickness.
"The main difference is the sod," Ramella explained. "It's a little thicker cut than what we installed before."
Once the installation of the new grass is complete, the grounds crew will immediately get to work adding top dressing and moisture to get the field ready for Sept. 17.
But the work goes beyond preparing the surface for one game. Ramella described the last few months as essentially studying how the grass behaves in a new environment. Taking it from a field in New Jersey and moving it to a partially enclosed stadium requires an investment of time into learning how the grass responds to moisture, sunlight and other factors.
"We are in an area that is confined. It's a whole different ecosystem than what's outside. We need to figure out how it plays in this ecosystem and a lot of that you can't do until players are on it," Ramella said.
The Bills aren't learning how to manage natural grass from scratch. The team has two full-length outdoor fields at One Bills Drive that the grounds crew has maintained for years. Players have come to appreciate the work that goes into maintaining them, particularly as the team practices outside as much as possible before winter.
"The practice field grass — it's been out there forever. It's so nice," Bills center Connor McGovern said. "It's like the perfect thickness and firmness. It doesn't have any give, but it's not too soft. It's perfect out there."
For the players, the quality of the surface is about more than how the field looks. It can affect how they feel after a day of practice and throughout the week.
"Grass is healthier for our bodies," QB Josh Allen said. "I'm at a point in my career now that when we practice inside on the artificial, I can feel it the next day… When we're outside, I feel great, and I think any guy that was honest would tell you that's how they feel. I think it's healthier injury prevention."
Learning how to properly manage and care for the grass at Highmark Stadium is a process that will continue to be refined. Even the newly-installed field will need to be replaced again at some point during the season.
"Each time, we're gonna tweak a little thing, and that's just the kind of process," Ramella said.
Every new field gives the grounds crew another opportunity to learn what works best inside Highmark Stadium, continuing a process that began with the first sod laid nearly a year ago.
"Every time we do this, it's just going to get better and better," Ramella said.
