Bills hope to remain the team to beat in AFC East. Pictured: Kansas City Chiefs, with tight end Travis Kelce in centre. Photo Credit: Chiefs/X.
The National Football League regular season officially kicked off Thursday night in Kansas City with the Baltimore Ravens in town for an AFC Championship Game rematch.
Kansas City raised its Championship banner and is looking to become the first NFL team to three-peat as Super Bowl Champions.
The Green Bay Packers won three consecutive championships – an NFL title (before the Super Bowl era) in 1966 followed by Super Bowl wins in 1967 and 1968.
Game 2 of the season goes global Friday night when the Packers meet the Philadelphia Eagles in San Paolo, Brazil.
Kansas City is the favorite in the AFC, and the top pick overall to win football’s biggest prize, followed by the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals.
What about the Buffalo Bills?
The Bills are the fourth favorite betting favorites in the AFC and haven’t reached the Super Bowl since 1993.
Buffalo has gone 58-24 (.707) over the past five regular seasons, second only to Kansas City (63-20, .759). With 58 wins, the team is tied with the 2017-21 New Orleans Saints for the most during a five-season span without reaching the Super Bowl.
The Bills still have one of the best quarterbacks in the league in Josh Allen at the helm, but he lost his two top receivers from last season in Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis.
It will likely be receiver by committee, at least to start the season, for Buffalo.
One of the great feel-good stories out of Bills camp this week was head coach Sean McDermott announcing Damar Hamlin won the starting safety role.
Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest on-field against the Cincinnati Bengals in January of 2023.
“Truly a blessing,” Hamlin said. “I reflect back on the whole process and me not knowing if I would even be able to play again, sitting in the uncertainty, it was really eating at me because football is truly my passion. It’s the thing that I’ve always been obsessed with my entire life. It all goes to the power of being process-oriented and taking things one day at a time and accepting where you are at each step in the process. It truly allows you to conquer anything that you’re facing.”
With the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets in the conversation in the AFC East, Buffalo opens its season by entertaining Arizona Sunday afternoon.
Meanwhile in the NFC, oddsmakers have the San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions as the pre-season favorites – in that order.
And the Lions are garnering a lot of attention after reaching the NFC Championship Game for the first time since 1993 last season.
Detroit’s offense, led by quarterback Jared Goff, is solid, but its defense that concerns some. The Lions allowed opponents to score a touchdown on 23-percent of their drives, which ranked 25th in the league. Detroit will be relying on a ton of new faces, including rookie cornerbacks Terrion Arnold and Ennis Rakestraw Jr.
“Man, we’re excited, I’m excited. The staff is excited, the players, everybody,” the always-engaged Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell said. “And I know our fans are ready to roll so this is going to be great.”
Detroit hosts the Los Angeles Rams in the NFL’s first Sunday night game of the campaign.
I’m not sure the powers that be in the league office would like it, but a Bills versus Lions Super Bowl would certainly be interesting for Canadian NFL fans.
You never know, and that’s why they play the games.
Stay tuned.
Rod Mawhood is a lifelong Niagara native who has had the pleasure of working in all three mediums – Radio, Print and TV – for over 20 years. His first announcing gig was with the then St. Catharines Stompers. Since then he’s worked in radio and TV in Toronto, and currently is the announcer for the Niagara IceDogs and Niagara River Lions.
Rod also covers the Buffalo Bills for FOX Sports and the Buffalo Sabres for NBC Sports.
