While the official 2021 schedule release for the National Football League will not be dropped until 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday, CBS has officially announced its Week 1 schedule for the opening week around the league on Sunday, Sept. 12.
As part of CBS' Week 1 schedule, it will feature five games at 1 p.m. ET, along with two games at 4:25 p.m. ET. One of the featured games at 1 p.m. ET will see the Buffalo Bills taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park.
There had been some thoughts that the Bills could be a team that would be perfect for a Week 1 prime-time game this season. The enticing Week 1 matchup that was wildly talked about was Buffalo heading to Tampa Bay to take on the Super Bowl champion Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium.
Instead, the Bills will officially open the season in the 1 p.m. ET window for the 12th-straight year. It will also be the second-straight year Buffalo opens the season at home.
The last time Buffalo opened a season in prime-time was back in 2009 when they traveled to Foxboro to face the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football. Buffalo ended up losing the contest, 25-24 at Gillette Stadium.
This season will also mark the first time the Bills will open a season schedule with Pittsburgh since the 1978 season, where Terry Bradshaw and the Steelers came away with a 28-17 win in Orchard Park.
Here is the official slate of games for Week 1 of the 2021 NFL season:
We'll have wall-to-wall coverage of Wednesday's 2021 NFL schedule release on WGR, including a special two-hour edition of "The Nightcap" with "Sneaky Joe" DiBiase and Nate Geary starting at 7 p.m. ET.
Stay tuned for the latest developments with the release of the 2021 NFL schedule...