Buffalo Bills: Taking a Peek at the 2010 Preliminary Schedule

Since the Buffalo Bills season ends officially on January 3rd, 2010, you already know you won't be watching them appear in any playoff games again. Instead, you will be anxiously awaiting word for who Ralph Wilson has hired to be the new G.M. and who will be the new head coach.

Shortly after that, there will be news about which free agents the Bills have landed, and what the fate of T.O. is: will he be back for a second year or not?

Then you will be reading all sorts of expert's projections regarding the 2010 draft. Then you'll watch the three day draft proceedings, so you are totally up to the minute on everything there is to know about the newest Bills.

Does that sound like you? Well if it does, then you are the type of fan I wrote this article for.

Since the NFL has already announced the preliminary schedule of opponents for 2010, I thought it made sense to add this information in to your analysis, so you are better prepared for football discussions with family and friends over the holidays.

Who Do The Bills Play in 2010?

AFC East (twice each), then one game against the AFC North teams and the NFC North teams. That brings us to 14 games. The other two are intra-conference games where the Bills play the team in the AFC West and the AFC South that finishes in the same position in the standings.

So, if the Bills finish in fourth, the other two games are probably against Kansas City and either Houston or Tennessee (to be determined).

The actual schedule will come out in mid-April, but for now it looks like we have the following lineup:

Home Games : New England, New York Jets, Miami, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Detroit. The final game will either be Houston or Tennessee. Obviously, no word yet on which home game goes to Toronto.

Away Games : New England, New York Jets, Miami, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Minnesota, Green Bay and presumably Kansas City.

What to Make Of This Schedule?

One thing I noticed is that the Bills won't have to log a ton of miles for their away games, so that is nice. They will get to appear in two domes—Minnesota and Toronto.

With the exception of the Kansas City game, every other game on the road next year is against a team with a winning record. The Bills will be facing a difficult road schedule, to say the least.

In the NFC North games, we draw Green Bay and Minnesota on the road while we get the two losing clubs, Chicago and Detroit, at home. I was speculating and wondered, would you rather have that reversed?

Another words, would you rather take your chances that you could still beat the Bears and Lions at their place, and then have a better shot of beating Green Bay and Minnesota in Buffalo?

Taking it a step further, we also get the two AFC losing teams, Pittsburgh and Cleveland at home, while we travel to the two teams with a winning record, Baltimore and Cincinnati. Hmm...Conspiracy theory afloat?

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This will mark the third straight year that the Bills play Cleveland and Kansas City. Hopefully, the Bills vs. Cleveland game will not resemble the first two.

So, there you have it Bills fans. Do you think that knowing who the Bills play next year will influence which players they sign as free agents and who they draft?