For a while now, it has been known who and where the Buffalo Bills were going to play in the upcoming 2021 season. The only question that remained was when the Bills were going to match up with each of the 14 teams they were bound to play.
That question was finally answered on Wednesday night with the official release of the 2021 NFL schedule.
The Bills will open their 2021 schedule on Sunday, Sept. 12 with a 1 p.m. ET matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park. Their AFC East title defense will officially begin the next week when Buffalo travels to Miami to take on the Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium.
One fun aspect of the 2021 schedule for the Bills is the amount of prime-time games they will be featured in this season. Although Buffalo was not awarded the five maximum prime-time games allowed for a team in one season, much to the dismay of some fans, the Bills will still appear in the national spotlight a total of four times:
Week 5: Sunday, Oct. 10 at Kansas City Chiefs - 8:20 p.m. ET (NBC)
Week 6: Monday, Oct. 18 at Tennessee Titans - 8:15 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Week 12: Thursday, Nov. 25 at New Orleans Saints - 8:20 p.m. EST (NBC)
Week 13: Monday, Dec. 6 vs. New England Patriots - 8:15 p.m. EST (ESPN)
The first of their prime-time games will feature a rematch of the 2020 AFC Championship Game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. The Bills fell just short of reaching Super Bowl LV last season, losing 38-24 to the Chiefs in the AFC title game.
The third prime-time game will see the Bills back on Thanksgiving Day, this time in New Orleans to take on the Saints at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. It will be the second time in three years Buffalo will be featured on Thanksgiving after beating the Dallas Cowboys back in 2019 at AT&T Stadium.
The very next week will pin the Bills against the New England Patriots on "Monday Night Football" in the teams' first of two divisional matchups on the season. This game will mark the Bills' first "Monday Night Football" game in Orchard Park since October of 2018 when Tom Brady and the Patriots beat up on Derek Anderson and the Bills with Josh Allen injured and out of action.
This season will be one of firsts, in terms of picks for Howard Simon.
The NFL has included one more game for all 32 teams in the NFL, making it a 17-game schedule for the first time ever. Since 1978, the league has played a 16-game regular season, as it added two games to the previous 14-contest slate. Now it will add one more.
For more than 40 years, the NFL featured a 16-game season after adding two more games to the docket for each team in 1978. With the extra game on the schedule, it's an extra game for Howard to pick.
With the Bills schedule being released on Wednesday night, it was only fitting for Howard to put his picking cap on Thursday morning to kick off the first official edition of "Howard Picks the Bills" in 2021!
And in his first go-around with "Howard Picks the Bills" this season, Howard picked the Bills to pick up where they left off last regular season and go 14-3.
Follow along on Twitter for the latest picks from Howard by using the hashtag #HowardPicksTheBills. You can also track all of Howard's picks throughout the season with Brayton Wilson's picks tracker on Twitter: @BJWilsonWGR.
You can listen to the latest edition of "Howard Picks the Bills" below: