Bills Pre-Season Schedule Set...What Can We Learn From It?

The National Football League announced the 2010 pre-season schedule Thursday and looking at the Buffalo Bills slate of games, the NFL did the team good.

First off, Buffalo opens the season in Washington against the Redskins. This will be a good measuring stick for the teams at the quarterback position as both are looking for a starting signal-caller.

Could this also be the debut of a high-profile quarterback that came out of the 2010 draft for both teams? Both are expected to take a quarterback...It could be the start of the careers of Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy, Tim Tebow or Jimmy Claussen for one or both teams.

It will also give fans of both teams a quick glimpse of their new head coaches...Mike Shanahan in Washington and Chan Gailey in Buffalo.

Next, the Bills head to Toronto to take on the Indianapolis Colts. Since Buffalo is obligated to play an exhibition game in Toronto this year, I guess sending the Colts there hopefully means the NFL will send a clunker of a regular season game there...like the Detroit game.

Also, the Colts were just in Buffalo to close out the 2009 campaign so they were just in town for a meaningful game. Also, I don't think Peyton Manning is going to play more than a quarter in this game anyways so Toronto, enjoy!

The Bills lone home game on the pre-season schedule is against the Cincinnati Bengals. The third pre-season game usually means all the starters wil see a bulk of the action and this game should be a pretty good measuring stick for Buffalo against a solid Bengals team.

Cincinnati quarterback Carson Palmer will test the Buffalo 3-4 defense in this game and it will show where the Bills are going into the regular season.

We were blessed in the final week of the pre-season as Buffalo heads to Detroit for their annual exhibition tussle against the Lions. Can you imagine paying to see this game?

This game is always the last on the pre-season slate and usually is one of the worst games of the NFL season, pre-season, regular season or post-season.

Both teams will play their second and third teams personnel which is poor quality at best. 

This game, however, could be the deciding game on who will start the regular season at quarterback for Buffalo. That could be the only attraction to watching this game.

So while the NFL exhibition season tends to be uneventful, it could be a lot worse in the Bills case.

Here's why: No Detroit exhibition at home, the most important game of the pre-season is at home versus a good team (Cincinnati) in Week 3, Toronto gets a big-name pre-season game with Indianapolis and two elite rookie quarterbacks (who knows who) could match-up in the opener in Washington when the Bills and Redskins clash.

Excited yet? Me either...it's only the pre-season schedule, but it's the start of the 2010 National Football League year and that's gets me anxious.