Bills 2025 NFL Schedule Released for Josh Allen, James Cook, Bosa's Super Bowl Push

Fresh off a heartbreaking loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game last season, the Buffalo Bills are set to enter 2025 with Super Bowl aspirations.

The Bills have been among the most successful and consistent teams in the NFL over the past several seasons, making six straight playoff appearances and winning five consecutive AFC East titles.

With the reigning NFL MVP in quarterback Josh Allen leading the way, here is a breakdown of the Bills' 2025 schedule following its release on Wednesday.

Analysis

Playing a first-place schedule yet again, the Bills will face some top-flight opponents in 2025, including the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles and reigning AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs.

There are six 2024 playoff teams on their schedule overall when including the Baltimore Ravens, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston Texans, plus the Cincinnati Bengals and Miami Dolphins have the makings of teams that could bounce back and return to the postseason.

The Bills seemed to have a similarly difficult schedule last season, and there were major question marks surrounding their ability to remain on top in the AFC East after parting ways with numerous key veterans, including wide receiver Stefon Diggs, cornerback Tre'Davious White, safety Jordan Poyer, center Mitch Morse and a host of others.

However, the Bills were as good as ever, finishing 13-4 and reaching the AFC Championship Game for the first time since 2020.

This offseason featured far more impact additions than subtractions, as the Bills signed pass-rusher Joey Bosa and wide receiver Joshua Palmer in free agency, along with selecting cornerback Maxwell Hairston, defensive tackle T.J. Sanders and pass-rusher Landon Jackson in the draft.

Buffalo also returns key players such as Allen, running back James Cook, wide receiver Khalil Shakir, defensive tackle Ed Oliver, pass-rusher Gregory Rousseau, cornerback Christian Benford, linebackers Terrel Bernard and Matt Milano, and the entire starting offensive line.

The Bills' roster looks far deeper and more talented than last year's roster on paper, which suggests head coach Sean McDermott has the players needed to compete against and defeat the best teams in the NFL.

Pivotal Matchups

As is always the case, there will be a ton of emphasis on the Bills' divisional games this season, although they don't necessarily feel as daunting as they did this time last year.

There was some thought last season that the Miami Dolphins or even the New York Jets would knock Buffalo from its AFC East perch, but the Bills clinched their division sooner than any other team, as the Dolphins, Jets and New England Patriots all finished with losing records.

The Bills still appear to be far ahead of their AFC East foes, but they can ill afford to take any of those games lightly after going undefeated in the division last season aside from a meaningless Week 18 loss to the Pats when they rested their starters.

Buffalo's scheduling quirk this season is that essentially all of their toughest matchups are home games, including the Eagles, Chiefs, Ravens and Bengals.

Including the playoffs, the Bills went a perfect 10-0 at home last season, and while repeating that feat will prove difficult, having home-field advantage against other Super Bowl contenders undoubtedly improves Buffalo's chances of winning those games.

Among the 17 games on their schedule, the clashes with Kansas City and Baltimore stand out as the most significant ones since it is difficult to argue against them being the top three teams in the AFC.

The Bills have beaten the Chiefs in four consecutive regular-season meetings, but the Chiefs have gone 4-0 against the Bills in the playoffs during that time.

Conversely, while the Ravens are 2-1 in regular-season games Lamar Jackson has started against Allen, the Bills and Allen are 2-0 against the Ravens and Jackson in the playoffs.

Some combination of the Bills, Chiefs and Ravens figure to be battling it out in the AFC Championship again next season, and the results of their regular-season matchups could go a long way toward determining which team has the easiest path there.