The wait is finally over. The 2021 NFL regular season is about to get underway on Thursday night with the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers hosting the Dallas Cowboys at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
Meanwhile in Western New York, fans are gearing up for a return to the stands at Highmark Stadium, as the 2021 Buffalo Bills season officially kicks off on Sunday, Sept. 12 against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Orchard Park.
The lead up to the 2021 season for the Bills has been one with some of the highest levels of anticipation since the Super Bowl years of the early 1990s. Fans across Western New York, as well as the rest of the National Football League have high expectations of the Bills this season after the team won the AFC East in 2020 and came within one game of reaching Super Bowl LV.
Not only that, but for the first time since the 2019 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the league will return to some sort of normalcy with fans back in attendance for games across the league.
With the 2021 season ready to kick off just days from now, it marks the return of a beloved weekly Tuesday tradition on WGR that gets everyone even more hyped before a Bills game day: Howard Simon picking the Bills.
After another perfect preseason for the Bills this year, the team is hoping to carry some of the momentum over into the regular season and beyond. With an extra game on the regular season schedule, the Bills could be able to top their 13-3 record from last season with another win and set a new franchise record for the best season ever recorded.
However, with the rest of the AFC East improving over the offseason and adding some more younger talent to the mix - especially at quarterback - it will be more challenging for the Bills to repeat in the division.
While the division - and the rest of the AFC for that matter - managed to get better ahead of the 2021 season, Howard believes that the Bills will be able to perform just as well, if not better, as they did in the 2020 season. In fact, in the first official edition of "Howard Picks the Bills" this year, Howard sees the Bills continuing to build off last year's success by going 14-3 and repeating as AFC East champions.
Be sure to 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: