ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — It's not quite a national paid holiday, but for football fans, it comes close.
The NFL schedule is expected to be released next Wednesday, on May 15, and there are plenty of questions that will soon be answered. Who will the Bills open against? When is the bye week? Which games will be in prime time?
We'll know all of that soon enough. For now, let's break down what we do know.
The Bills' opponents
The Bills will host eight teams at Highmark Stadium: the Kansas City Chiefs, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, and New York Jets.
Their nine road games include: the Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Detroit Lions, Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, and New York Jets.
2 Christmas games on a Wednesday
The NFL announced during its annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., in March that there will be two Christmas games this season. While that's normally not an issue, the holiday falls on a Wednesday this year, meaning that the league needed to get creative on how it plans to present this Christmas gift to fans. Those teams would likely play a Saturday game the week before.
4 games in Europe
The Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings, and Jacksonville Jaguars will host regular season games in London, and the Carolina Panthers will play in Munich, Germany. We know the Bills will not be playing any games overseas this season.
A game in Brazil
For the first time since 1970, the NFL will play on a Friday night on its opening weekend, and it's going to happen in South America. The Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers will play their Week 1 game in Sao Paulo on Sept. 6, and it will be exclusively streamed on Peacock, outside of the Eagles' and Packers' home markets.
A Thursday night start in Kansas City
There's not a rule that says the NFL will open a new season with the reigning Super Bowl champions, but it tends to happen year after year after year. So yeah, you can probably plan on watching the Chiefs kick off a new season in Kansas City. That game will not feature Buffalo, which will host the Chiefs — and possibly Taylor Swift — in Orchard Park.
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