2024 Bills Schedule Very Early Updates

[Gregg]

17 minutes ago, WhitewalkerInPhilly said:

I suspect we end the season vs the Jets. We've been rotating and the NFL loves doing division matchups on Week 18

 

For some reason the league likes it when the Bills and Jets open against one another. Both teams have been since 1960. They have opened the season against one another about a 1/3 of the time. 

[DJB]

So do we play the Jets this year? 🧐

[Gregg]

1 minute ago, DJB said:

So do we play the Jets this year? 🧐

 

Better not lose to them a 3rd straight time at MetLife. We had a nice winning streak in that stadium for a while including the Giants game. It was a few years ago when they played at the Jets and at the Giants in weeks 1 and 2. They won both games. 

[corta765]

1 hour ago, Gregg said:

 

For some reason the league likes it when the Bills and Jets open against one another. Both teams have been since 1960. They have opened the season against one another about a 1/3 of the time. 

The last time the Bills opened with Miami was 2010. Super weird note as it was more common for a while and now they haven't opened in nearly a decade and a half.

[Gregg]

1 minute ago, corta765 said:

The last time the Bills opened with Miami was 2010. Super weird note as it was more common for a while and now they haven't opened in nearly a decade and a half.

 

Same with the Pats. It's been a while, but the Bills and Jets seem to open with each other every 3 years or so it seems. It's almost 1/3 of the time since both franchises existed. 

[corta765]

51 minutes ago, Gregg said:

 

Same with the Pats. It's been a while, but the Bills and Jets seem to open with each other every 3 years or so it seems. It's almost 1/3 of the time since both franchises existed. 

It is wild since 2004 looks like this:

 

Bills didn't open against the Jets from 2002 until 2012. Since 2012 Buffalo's opened vs NY 5 times and 3 of the last 5.

[Gregg]

3 minutes ago, corta765 said:

It is wild since 2004 looks like this:

 

Bills didn't open against the Jets from 2002 until 2012. Since 2012 Buffalo's opened vs NY 5 times and 3 of the last 5.

 

Last time vs Miami 2010 and New England 2013. I get opening within the division. That happens all the time. But it is strange that the Bills open with the Jets so many times and hardly any vs the Fins and Pats in recent history. It doesn't matter in the end as the Bills play all 3 teams a combined 6 times anyway.

[corta765]

32 minutes ago, Gregg said:

 

Last time vs Miami 2010 and New England 2013. I get opening within the division. That happens all the time. But it is strange that the Bills open with the Jets so many times and hardly any vs the Fins and Pats in recent history. It doesn't matter in the end as the Bills play all 3 teams a combined 6 times anyway.

Closest I can think of is PIT/CLE had a little stretch like that in the mid 2010s and NYG/DAL seemingly play every opening week.

[bigK14094]

Brazil has unique problems with staging a game.  Medical facilities and supplies for one.  My company built a plant down there, and we  had special provisions made for medical treatments.  Standards are not the same.  But, if luck was good, no hospital needed for a game.  But, great food and drink and a great country imho.  I loved the people down there.

[corta765]

5 minutes ago, bigK14094 said:

Brazil has unique problems with staging a game.  Medical facilities and supplies for one.  My company built a plant down there, and we  had special provisions made for medical treatments.  Standards are not the same.  But, if luck was good, no hospital needed for a game.  But, great food and drink and a great country imho.  I loved the people down there.

 

Yea the NFL is taking a bit of risk standard wise as it is not up to par and I gotta believe they will have their own medical provided across the board. Like you said great people, but it will be interesting to see how it goes.

[ControllerOfPlanetX]

4 hours ago, WhitewalkerInPhilly said:

I suspect we end the season vs the Jets. We've been rotating and the NFL loves doing division matchups on Week 18

good, the Jets will be running for the bus at that point.

[HIT BY SPIKES]

Anything else?

[sonyab1974]

On 1/31/2024 at 2:28 PM, corta765 said:

"The Bills will not play opening night. The Bills host the Chiefs and 49ers in 2024 so while those games certainly have primetime potential it will not be week 1 against the SB champion."

 

 

 

Really? Why won't they play opening night?

[Low Positive]

Just now, sonyab1974 said:

 

Really? Why won't they play opening night?

Because the defending champion plays a home game on Thursday of week 1, and both the Niners and Chiefs games will be in Buffalo.

[Gregg]

1 minute ago, sonyab1974 said:

 

Really? Why won't they play opening night?

 

The Super Bowl champion plays the first game of the year at home on Thursday night. The Niners and Chiefs both come to Buffalo next year. 

[Tuco]

On 1/31/2024 at 9:10 PM, djp14150 said:

excluding 3 road/ home games in row with a bye in between…..the league DOES NOT schedule 3 in a row.  The 3 in the row come about in final adjustments in flipping weeks before schedule gets published.

 

The scheduling is a constraint satisfaction problem.  I understand this fully.  They set the national games and thxgvg, special day, foreign site games first.  From there they fill in schedules. This takes into account schedule conflicts like in Seattle, Baltimore, KC, and others that have baseball and football stadiums next to each other.  Look at the baseball schedules. If mariners  is home on opening weekend fri-wed. Seattle opens on the road.  They also take into account other events like concerts and  other events in the area.  Teams submit to the league scheduling office on these conflicts.  
 

they create a subset of games that is used to decide the national games ( including 425 games). You can go through and take games from divisional, inter league, div vs div same conf, placement games, other games of note ( rematch in playoffs), former coach/ QB/ big name player returning, Thursday having all teams on it, younger up and coming teams thry likely get an earlier national game than one in December that gets flexed out, and bye weeks like around overseas game.  It’s far easier in scheduling to do this in advance than try to get them in the schedule.  In the past few years you have seen 2 teams from thxgvg face each other on Thursday the week before or after is not some schedule luck. It was pre- planned.  Similarly teams who have nearby baseball stadium….they try to build schedule flexibility in case games need to be moved.  It’s a first game of divisional teams or the two teams share the same bye week. Stadiums like these are Seattle, Baltimore, Detroit, KC, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and others.

 

 

there is caps on national game scheduling in prime time.  They added other rules around divisional game scheduling where both are not on prime time national tv.

 

it’s possible the bills 2 west coast games get scheduled for the same trip. It can be one on Sunday, followed by one on Thursday.

 

um …divisional games in last weeks….just about all teams have 2-3 divisional games post thxgvg week on their schedule.  Usually a 1 vs 2 in division is one of them.  Expect bills playing jets or dolphins in thr final weeks. Sincr patriots changing coaches I don’t expect a late NE game over the last 3 weeks. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah there's lots of "rules" and requests the league tries to adhere to when making the schedule. A lot has to do with the TV markets not competing with each other for teams in the same market. Basically, in addition to using the same stadium, the Jets and Giants almost never play at the same time. Used to be the same with the Raiders and Niners. Now it's the Raiders and Chargers. To a lesser extent they try to keep the Ravens and Commanders from playing at the same time as their TV markets overlap. Then throw in other stadium conflicts with MLB or Olympics or whatever and the league trying not to schedule 3 game road trips unless they really have to. It gets pretty complicated. 

 

Throw in more and more networks competing for quality prime-time games while CBS and FOX lobby to keep their top matchups. Then there's other things. The Jets and Giants, in addition to not playing at the same time, always request road games during certain Jewish holidays as their Jewish fans can't be out after dark or something like that. Last year the league scheduled the Jets at home during one of these holidays and caught a lot of grief for it. So usually on whatever weekend that falls on the Jets and Giants will both be on the road and at different times.

 

There's been articles written that talk about just how many requests they get and try to deal with. Teams like the Bills don't want to play in Miami in September. Miami doesn't want to play in Buffalo in January. It's impossible to keep everyone happy. But no doubt there's a hierarchy where some factions have more pull than others. I would imagine TV networks and stadium conflicts along with the league's desire to have lots of division matchups late are at the top of the list.

Edited February 2 by Tuco

[djp14150]

8 hours ago, Tuco said:

 

Yeah there's lots of "rules" and requests the league tries to adhere to when making the schedule. A lot has to do with the TV markets not competing with each other for teams in the same market. Basically, in addition to using the same stadium, the Jets and Giants almost never play at the same time. Used to be the same with the Raiders and Niners. Now it's the Raiders and Chargers. To a lesser extent they try to keep the Ravens and Commanders from playing at the same time as their TV markets overlap. Then throw in other stadium conflicts with MLB or Olympics or whatever and the league trying not to schedule 3 game road trips unless they really have to. It gets pretty complicated. 

 

Throw in more and more networks competing for quality prime-time games while CBS and FOX lobby to keep their top matchups. Then there's other things. The Jets and Giants, in addition to not playing at the same time, always request road games during certain Jewish holidays as their Jewish fans can't be out after dark or something like that. Last year the league scheduled the Jets at home during one of these holidays and caught a lot of grief for it. So usually on whatever weekend that falls on the Jets and Giants will both be on the road and at different times.

 

There's been articles written that talk about just how many requests they get and try to deal with. Teams like the Bills don't want to play in Miami in September. Miami doesn't want to play in Buffalo in January. It's impossible to keep everyone happy. But no doubt there's a hierarchy where some factions have more pull than others. I would imagine TV networks and stadium conflicts along with the league's desire to have lots of division matchups late are at the top of the list.

 

yes there are many other factors with shared stadiums in LA and NY.

 

I live in DC area.  Generally DC and Baltimore aren’t on the same network at the same time. They do place at the same time.  Similarly NY and LA teams can play at the same time just not on same network.  Because of shared stadium therr is a higher likelihood of non sunday games being played there.  That’s why I wouldn’t be surprised if bills at rams and bills at jets are not on Sunday. Safe bet Ravens at chargers ( brother coaches face off) on a Monday night in early October avoiding early baseball playoff conflict were ravens at home .

 

 

some of these blackout dates for home games are regular like the stadium hosting high school championship games or college games, bowl season or regular season.  For example a Norte dame at navy game will be played in Baltimore or Washington stadiums.  I expect the new nashville football stadium  will be a regular venue for SEC championship games.  Washington nee football stadium probably hosts ACC or big 10 championship and probably hosts a bowl game.

 

Houston stadium has a big Xmas shopping season event like the weekend of thxgvg or the weekend sfter so no games there.  Other stadiums have concerts on Saturday in Sept- Nov.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sonyab1974]

On 2/2/2024 at 10:25 AM, Gregg said:

 

The Super Bowl champion plays the first game of the year at home on Thursday night.

Oh really? Wow! Okay. Thanks.

[Chandler#81]

NFL just announced the Eagles will be playing in Brazil next season. Announcement doesn’t say who they’re playing but it definitely won’t be Buffalo.

[SoonerBillsFan]

Bills at Lions on Thanksgiving?  Makes sense.

[Ethan in Cleveland]

I predict Bills at Seattle on Monday night. 

[chongli]

2 hours ago, Chandler#81 said:

NFL just announced the Eagles will be playing in Brazil next season. Announcement doesn’t say who they’re playing but it definitely won’t be Buffalo.

 

Yep, this is Schefter's tweet for the Eagles home opponents:

 

 

[sullim4]

On 2/1/2024 at 9:34 AM, bigK14094 said:

Brazil has unique problems with staging a game.  Medical facilities and supplies for one.  My company built a plant down there, and we  had special provisions made for medical treatments.  Standards are not the same.  But, if luck was good, no hospital needed for a game.  But, great food and drink and a great country imho.  I loved the people down there.

 

This is actually one of the reasons why I thought they might try Chile over Brazil.  The medical care is better, it's wealthier, and the country is frankly safer than many parts of the USA.  Brazil is a much bigger crapshoot on all three counts.

[Doc Brown]

No International Games!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

[corta765]

14 hours ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

Bills at Lions on Thanksgiving?  Makes sense.

NFL usually avoids repeats and given NFC v AFC I can see it being prioritized for a primetime 4pm spot

[dma0034]

Bills have a lot of good matchups next year. 4x Jets (with Rodgers) and Dolphins, Texans, 49ers, Chiefs, Ravens, Rams, Jags and Lions. 

 

I think: Dolphins, Jets, Lions, Ravens and Texans are prime time games. Chiefs will be a 4pm game for sure

[Gregg]

The league changed when the schedule comes out. It used to be announced in April. If I remember correctly, they now do it after the draft and announce it sometime in May. I know the Bills will get their share of primetime games but a 1:00 start is still my favorite time for a Bills game.

[Tuco]

53 minutes ago, corta765 said:

NFL usually avoids repeats and given NFC v AFC I can see it being prioritized for a primetime 4pm spot

Lions always play at 12:30 on Thanksgiving. Cowboys at 4:00. 

 

Always.

[BritBill]

15 hours ago, Chandler#81 said:

NFL just announced the Eagles will be playing in Brazil next season. Announcement doesn’t say who they’re playing but it definitely won’t be Buffalo.

 

Week 1.

[HIT BY SPIKES]

14 hours ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

I predict Bills at Seattle on Monday night. 

Ohhhhh….

[BearNorth]

On 1/31/2024 at 4:46 PM, Dick_Cheney said:

We've figured out the Dolphins, ... Very much hoping we don't have to deal with another extreme heat situation in Miami again.

League needs to address this before one of the larger guys has heatstroke.  Perhaps have the Dolphins on the road for the opener and night home games in September.  Average daily high in Miami is 89 in September, drops to 86 in October.  Skew the home schedule towards Late October on.

 

I think Jacksonville has the same issue in September, but temps drops off more quickly in October.  Most of the other hot weather cities are Domes - Atlanta, NO, Houston, Dallas, Arizona, LA.

 

 

[corta765]

2 hours ago, Tuco said:

Lions always play at 12:30 on Thanksgiving. Cowboys at 4:00. 

 

Always.

 

I meant 4pm primetime on Sunday AFC v NFC for Bills Lions my bad

[WhitewalkerInPhilly]

12 hours ago, Doc Brown said:

No International Games!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

oh thank christ

[Tuco]

28 minutes ago, corta765 said:

 

I meant 4pm primetime on Sunday AFC v NFC for Bills Lions my bad

Ahh that makes sense. 

[eball]

4 hours ago, BearNorth said:

League needs to address this before one of the larger guys has heatstroke.  Perhaps have the Dolphins on the road for the opener and night home games in September.  Average daily high in Miami is 89 in September, drops to 86 in October.  Skew the home schedule towards Late October on.

 

I think Jacksonville has the same issue in September, but temps drops off more quickly in October.  Most of the other hot weather cities are Domes - Atlanta, NO, Houston, Dallas, Arizona, LA.

 

 

 

Jacksonville didn't specifically engineer updates to their stadium to create a 20-30 degree difference on the opposing sideline.

 

I still say what Miami did does not fall under the auspices of "gamesmanship" and creates an unfair (and potentially dangerous) advantage.  I'm amazed the league isn't doing something about it -- it would be so easy to schedule only 4pm or later games during September and October.

 

[corta765]

4 minutes ago, eball said:

 

Jacksonville didn't specifically engineer updates to their stadium to create a 20-30 degree difference on the opposing sideline.

 

I still say what Miami did does not fall under the auspices of "gamesmanship" and creates an unfair (and potentially dangerous) advantage.  I'm amazed the league isn't doing something about it -- it would be so easy to schedule only 4pm or later games during September and October.

 

 

It is a slippery slope when you start getting to perfectly equal in terms of stadium, design, conditions etc... There are many people who think Buffalo playing outdoors in the weather we do is unfair and all northern teams should be in a dome. Seattle and KC were engineered in a way to amplify the noise in their standings to make it impossible to hear for the opponent. The league could halt or pause a game if the heat is legitimately unsafe, they have not needed to at this point.

[Sestak4ever]

23 minutes ago, corta765 said:

 

It is a slippery slope when you start getting to perfectly equal in terms of stadium, design, conditions etc... There are many people who think Buffalo playing outdoors in the weather we do is unfair and all northern teams should be in a dome. Seattle and KC were engineered in a way to amplify the noise in their standings to make it impossible to hear for the opponent. The league could halt or pause a game if the heat is legitimately unsafe, they have not needed to at this point.

Just make the conditions equal for both teams, which currently it is not! That’s criminal and should be addressed in the same light as concussions. If player safety comes first then they should act on it.

[Aussie Joe]

21 hours ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

Bills at Lions on Thanksgiving?  Makes sense.

Not really … considering they were just in Detroit on Thanksgiving 2 years ago …doubt they get that game again 2 years later ..

 

Maybe they could host the Thanksgiving night game though? Haven’t done that in a while …. Maybe against 49ers? 

[Gregg]

29 minutes ago, Aussie Joe said:

Not really … considering they were just in Detroit on Thanksgiving 2 years ago …doubt they get that game again 2 years later ..

 

Maybe they could host the Thanksgiving night game though? Haven’t done that in a while …. Maybe against 49ers? 

 

 In recent history they played at Dallas, at Detroit and at New Orleans in the night game. I can't see them getting a 4th Thanksgiving Day game anytime soon.

[Aussie Joe]

14 minutes ago, Gregg said:

 

 In recent history they played at Dallas, at Detroit and at New Orleans in the night game. I can't see them getting a 4th Thanksgiving Day game anytime soon.

I can … the NFL loves them on Prime Time 

 

 

Edited February 6 by Aussie Joe