Analyzing the 2025 Bills Schedule

[corta765]

1 hour ago, chris heff said:

Anybody else see Sal Maiorana’s prediction for the season? He has the Bills going 12-5, losses to Ravens, okay, the Falcons? Because of their running game. Texans, okay, the Patriots? Because of Vrabel? And finally the Eagles, okay. I just don’t see the Bills losing to the Falcons and I don’t get the love for Vrabel. He had a couple of good years in Tennessee, but nothing special.

Falcons loss is certainly possible. Would be their fourth night game on the road against a Falcons talent that has some real talent up on offense. Buffalo loses a game or two yearly that you don't expect or fans underestimate and I can certainly see that.

 

So division wise it is extremely difficult to go 6-0 which they would've been last year if they needed week 18. Even when the Pats had their major run I think they only swept the division two or three times. Of the three AFCE foes Pats make the most sense to be the biggest threat as Maye is young and shown some real flashes, their defense is solid as heck, and regardless of your opinion Vrabel was a very solid coach for TEN who caused the Bills headaches a few times plus he did win the division twice and make the AFC title. The Jets are the Jets and a mess with no QB, the Phins seem to be regressing as their expensive vets age, so realistically if the Bills lose a divisional game NE feels like the right pick at this point.

[BuffaL0L0k0]

On 5/15/2025 at 4:41 PM, Haplo848 said:

So some of the things that I always look for in a schedule are:

- Are there any international games? 

I'd honestly rather forfeit them than have our players go overseas and play on subpar fields where all our stars get injured for great lengths of time, like Milano and Daquan Jones in England a couple years back.  Not to mention the long travel, sleep issues, and oftentimes losing a home game to the international game.  Screw those games.  I'm glad we don't have any this year.

- Are there back-to-back away games?  Or even worse? 

I've been told that the travel can really take a toll on players when you get 2 or 3 games in a row that are all away.  So I look for games like this.  This year, we have two pairs of back-to-back games.  That's not very favorable, in my opinion.  Especially when you consider KC who, despite all their traveling to the AFC South and NFC East, don't actually have ANY back-to-back away games.  I find that to be complete BS, and favoring KC.  They DO have two away games in a row, but there is a bye between when they play us, and when they play the Broncos, week 9-11

- Do the Dolphins have many heat stroke games? 

Not really.  They have the Patriots at home at 1 pm Week 2, and the Chargers (who are used to the heat) Week 6, but until we play them on 11/09 at 1 pm in Week 10, all of their other games are either away or at night.  That means that they won't be able to use their stadium's unfair advantage THAT much this year, like last year.  Two years ago, when they had a BUNCH of heat stroke games, they had a good record, but most of them came in the beginning of the season.  Last year, they didn't, and finished below 0.500.  I expect the same thing from them this year.

- Lastly, (and this requires a bit more digging into the schedule) what teams have extra rest coming into games with us, and which games do we have extra rest?  And are they important games?  

This is where we REALLY get screwed this year.  Just like we ALWAYS seem to get screwed.  The games this year are:
 

Falcons have a bye before they play us on Monday night (+7 days rest)

Dolphins play on TNF before we play in Miami, AND it's right after the Chiefs game (+3 days rest)

Bengals play on TNF before we play them (+3 days rest)

Patriots have a bye before we play them in NE (+7 days rest)

Eagles play on Friday before our matchup (+2 days rest)

The advantages we get:

TNF before playing the Saints (+3 days rest)

Bye before playing the Panthers (+7 days rest)

Chiefs are on MNF the week before we play them (+1 days rest)

TNF before we play the Steelers (+3 days rest)

That's a full week of net extra rest other teams have coming into games than the Bills do this season.  Not only that, four of the five games in which the opponents get more rest are games which I would consider to be huge games (Dolphins, Bengals, Patriots, Eagles - two divisional rivals, a playoff contender, and the Super Bowl Champs).  We only have 1-2 big games (Chiefs, Steelers) in which we have the same advantage, and one of those is only an extra day of rest against the Chiefs.  The other is against the Steelers, and I'm not sure how big of a game that will be.  They seem destined to be mediocre year after year recently.  You're not going to convince me that the Falcons, Saints, or Panthers, non-conference games against mediocre at best competition, are huge games for us.

So overall, I'm rather unhappy about this schedule.  I appreciate the no overseas games and the Dolphins not getting too many unfair advantages by attempting to kill their opponents with climate change.  But beyond that, I'm not seeing TOO MUCH to be happy about.  Just like every year, the NFL screws us over with net rest, and I can't remember when the Bills last had a season without back-to-back away games.

Just beat whoever the schedule puts in front of you, and all this theories of up and downs of the schedule becomes rain noise on the roof, and that doesn´t mean I dont appreciate the great analysis you just did,and this lazy reader has just 2 cents of opinion, but my stand this year is not to get to anxy for soemthing we as fans, not even our team contols, just beat the h311 out of them riavlas! Superbowl! here we go! and we will finally put a ¨1 ¨ on the left of the slash & 4 Ls...

Edited May 17 by BuffaL0L0k0