Buffalo Rumblings
Are the Bills surprisingly overlooked despite eight nationally televised games in 2025?
When the curtain dropped on the Buffalo Bills’ 2025 NFL schedule, a few facts caught even the most well-connected of football writers by surprise. Bills Mafia had long-understood the teams Buffalo was to face in 2025, but the when and where were up in the air. Football fans are perhaps the most superstitious people around, and for good reasons. With only 17 games in the regular season before playoffs. every aspect of each week makes the NFL feel like a do-or-die league during the fall.
So what stands out the most in the immediate aftermath of Buffalo’s schedule reveal? Is it possible that a team with eight nationally televised games in 2025 is being overlooked? I have some thoughts about the schedule created for revamped Bills team that made the 2024 AFC Championship Game, and which rosters the current NFL MVP in quarterback Josh Allen.
“Will they or won’t they?” One of the hottest topics about the Bills’ schedule this offseason was whether or not Buffalo would play as part of a featured holiday game. Thanksgiving, (technically) Black Friday, and Christmas were all holidays on the calendar this season where many expected Buffalo to play games. There are a total of seven games between the three holidays, yet the Bills aren’t one of the 14 featured teams.
To me, that’s the biggest surprise of the team’s 2025 schedule. Despite a featured holiday film exclusive to the Hallmark Channel, Buffalo won’t have to worry about how cold it is outside, nor how or when they’re getting home for any holiday this year.
For whatever reason, one of the NFL’s hottest teams — a perennial playoff franchise and Super Bowl contender featuring the reigning NFL MVP in Josh Allen — wasn’t included in this year’s holiday plans.
Quite honestly, I’m okay with it. I do understand the appeal of watching the Bills during a holiday, even if your fandom doesn’t allow you to focus on anything other than the game. However, for those of us who cover the team and the NFL in our professional lives, it’s a blessing having those days off.
Many analysts and fans believed Buffalo was ripe for the international picking this coming season. They’ll play the road team to the Pittsburgh Steelers, a team set to serve as the home team for the first NFL game in Dublin, Ireland. Josh Allen’s jersey was the fourth-highest-selling among all NFL threads in 2024. There was every reason to expect a Bills-Steelers matchup. But, again, worried (or wishful) thinking was all for naught. That’s a major plus for Buffalo — which has one of the lowest mileage totals in the NFL this season.
There are plenty of reasons the Bills should want to play international games, chief among them being the exposure granted to one of the NFL’s smallest...
