Buffalo Bills Rumors: 2020 season could start with four NFC West matchups
In a recent radio appearance, John Clayton said that the NFL could set up the 2020 schedule to start with non-conference opponents first. This would mean the Buffalo Bills would start the year with four games against the NFC West.
The big news this week for the Buffalo Bills is going to be the release of the 2020 schedule, which will take place on Thursday night. However, as the date gets closer rumors and speculations about the schedule begin to ramp up.
One recently that makes a lot of sense came from NFL insider John Clayton, who did an interview for 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh, and said that the league was expected to structure the schedule to start with the non-conference matchups first.
.@JohnClaytonNFL tells @937theFan that the NFL schedule will be NFC vs AFC for the 1st 4 weeks of the season. Steelers play the NFC East. So 1st 4 games would be Cowboys, Eagles, Redskins, and Giants.
— Andrew Fillipponi (@ThePoniExpress) May 6, 2020
If this is true, the Bills will have a tough stretch of games for a number of reasons considering they would have to play all four teams in the NFC West. This will include home games against the Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams and road trips to the San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals.
The first reason is just the fact that these are four really good teams. The San Francisco 49ers represented the NFC in the Super Bowl this past year, and the Rams accomplished the same feat the year prior.
Meanwhile, the Seahawks are consistently near the top of the NFC led by Russell Wilson and the Cardinals look to be a team on the rise with second-year quarterback Kyler Murray.
Aside from the quality of opponents, this also could present a logistically issue for the Bills as these first four games would include two trips to the West Coast. In an ideal world, the NFL would schedule the away games on back to back weeks to allow the team to stay on the West Coast.
The reasoning certainly makes sense from the NFL perspective because if the start of the season has to be delayed, it could drop the non-conference games and keep the same number of divisional and conference games. The records in divisional games and conference games are key parts of playoff tie-breakers so to ensure every team plays the same number is important.
Next. Return of AFC East rivalries in 2020. dark
There is no question that this will be a tough stretch to the season for the Buffalo Bills if this is how the schedule is set up. However, it can also be used as a good measuring stick to find out exactly where this team measures up with some of the best in the league.