Bills 2024 NFL Schedule Released for Josh Allen's 1st Year After Stefon Diggs Trade

Fresh off a fourth consecutive AFC East title and fifth straight playoff appearance, the Buffalo Bills enter the 2024 season looking to win a fifth consecutive division title for the first time in franchise history.

Buffalo has yet to reach a Super Bowl under quarterback Josh Allen and head coach Sean McDermott, but the Bills have become a perennial playoff team and have won at least one playoff game in each of the past four seasons.

The Bills fell at home to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Divisional Round last season, marking the third time in the past four years that Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs have ended their season.

That prompted a big change this offseason, as the Bills traded four-time Pro Bowl and one-time First Team All-Pro wide receiver Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans.

Buffalo will look to finally get over the hump in 2024, and here is a rundown of the schedule it will be tasked with traversing.

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2024 Buffalo Bills Schedule

Full schedule information available on the team's official website

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Analysis

As a perennial AFC East champion, the Bills are once again playing a first-place schedule in 2024, meaning they have some tough opponents on their hands.

Buffalo figures to be favored in most or all of its eight home games, although matchups with the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and reigning NFC champion San Francisco 49ers may essentially be coin flips.

On the road, the Bills have to face five teams that made the playoffs last year, including a Baltimore Ravens team that was the No. 1 seed in the AFC and reached the AFC Championship Game, and a Detroit Lions team that reached the NFC Championship Game.

Buffalo will go into battle with many of the key players from last year's team, including Allen, running back James Cook, tight end Dalton Kincaid, defensive tackle Ed Oliver and linebackers Matt Milano and Terrel Bernard, but there were some significant changes to the roster this offseason as well.

Most notably, the Bills traded Diggs to the Texans on the heels of him earning four Pro Bowl selections in his four seasons in Buffalo.

That forced the Bills to reshape their receiving corps, and they did so by signing Curtis Samuel and Mack Hollins in free agency, and selecting Florida State wide receiver Keon Coleman in the second round of the 2024 NFL draft.

The Bills also cut several key veterans from last year's team in order to become salary cap compliant, including center Mitch Morse, cornerback Tre'Davious White and safety Jordan Poyer.

While replacing those players won't be easy, they were aging and some were exiting their prime, so the moves may have been a necessary evil in terms of getting younger and more athletic on both sides of the ball.

Given the sheer amount of quality teams on the Bills' schedule in 2024 both inside and outside their division, the viability of the changes general manager Brandon Beane made will be put to the test.

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Pivotal Matchups

Every week is significant in the NFL, but it can be argued that none will be bigger for the Bills in 2024 than their divisional matchups.

Although the New England Patriots did upset the Bills once last season, they finished 4-13 and were last in the AFC East, so it is likely that Buffalo's meetings with the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets will have a bigger hand in how the AFC East standings shake out.

The Dolphins have been nipping at the heels for the past couple of seasons, coinciding with their acquisition of superstar wide receiver Tyreek Hill from the Chiefs.

Miami seemingly had Buffalo dead to rights with regard to the division last season, but the Dolphins lost three of their final five regular-season games, including a home loss to the Bills in Week 18 to lose the division.

The Dolphins had some big losses this offseason, including defensive tackle Christian Wilkins, but with an explosive offense led by Hill, wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and running backs De'Von Achane and Raheem Mostert, they will still be a factor.

The Jets were finally expected to be a player in the AFC East last season following the acquisition of future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers, but he suffered a torn Achilles on the Jets' first offensive series of the season.

Rodgers is expected to be fully healthy by the start of the 2024 season, plus general manager Joe Douglas was hard at work this offseason, adding key players such as wide receiver Mike Williams, offensive tackle Tyron Smith and pass-rusher Haason Reddick.

The Jets' defense has given the Bills issues in recent years even with New York struggling on offense, so even a slightly above average New York offense could pose a huge threat to Buffalo's reign atop the AFC East.

Lastly, while not a divisional matchup, all eyes will be on the Bills' road game against the Texans since it will be Buffalo first game against Diggs.

Additionally, quarterback C.J. Stroud is a rising star at quarterback for the Texans, and Houston is looking like the next contender in the AFC, joining the likes of the Bills, Chiefs, Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals.

Diggs and the Texans can prove a lot by beating the Bills, but if Buffalo wins that game, it could potentially go a long way toward showing that Allen's NFL success has not been solely due to Diggs' presence.