The Buffalo Bills' 2026 schedule has already been revealed, and they know who they will be playing and when. One of the tougher, but intriguing parts of their 2026 schedule is the number of quality quarterbacks they will face this season.
Head coach Joe Brady knows his first stint as the Bills' head coach will be tough sledding, but he wants the Bills to be mentally ready when facing these talented signal callers. If one thing is for sure, the Bills are not afraid to face any of these players, especially with their new, aggressive 3-4 scheme led by defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard.
Let's take a look at the best eight of the seventeen signal callers the Bills will be ready to face when the season is in full swing.
Bills will have hands full with these 8 quarterbacks
1. Jared Goff- Week 2 (Thursday Night Football)
Of all the quarterbacks the Bills could have welcomed into their new stadium on Thursday Night Football, it's none other than the reputable Jared Goff from the Detroit Lions. Last season, the 31-year-old gun-slinger threw for 4,564 yards, 34 touchdowns, and 8 interceptions, with a 105.5 quarterback rating.
Since being traded to the Detroit Lions from the LA Rams, Goff has been a key factor in changing the Lions' culture alongside head coach Dan Campbell. While he isn't your modern-day dual-threat quarterback who will wow the crowd with his arm and his legs, Goff is more of a throwback pocket passer who can run but relies more on precision and control of his passing.
While Goff has never been to Orchard Park as a member of the Lions, it will be interesting to see how he does playing outdoors in a new stadium that might be the loudest in the NFL.
2. Justin Herbert- Week 3
The Bills will be coming off their 10-day minibye after playing Goff and the Lions, only to face another top-tier quarterback in Justin Herbert. As a Josh Allen fan, I can relate to Bills fans: Herbert is awesome in the regular season but struggles in the playoffs.
Herbert's impressive 3,727 yards, 26 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions, along with a 94.1 quarterback rating, create confidence in his ability to execute at a high level. He is a physically gifted quarterback at 6-foot-6, 236 pounds, with a strong arm and good legs. The signal-caller does tend to lose command of his throws, hence the 13 interceptions, but is also very accurate when he has it.
If the Bills want to catch Herbert off guard during another potential great regular season for him, this would be the game to do it in.
3. Drake Maye- Week 4
Drake Maye burst onto the scene last year and became one of the top quarterbacks under first-year head coach Mike Vrabel. The 6-foot-4, 225-pound wonder threw for 4,394 yards with 31 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
He is considered one of two Allen doppelgangers, alongside New York Giants young signal caller Jaxson Dart. What I mean by this is that Maye is a tall, physical quarterback similar to Allen in that he is a gifted runner, but where they both shine is their off-platform, showstopping throws that make the fans go wild.
Since the Bills lost at home to the Pats last year, this has to be the game where the Pats and Maye fall to Allen and Buffalo in another close thriller.
4.) Matthew Stafford- Week 5 (Monday Night Football)
After their three-game home stretch ends, the Bills will travel to Inglewood, California, to face Matthew Stafford and the LA Rams on Monday Night Football at SoFi Stadium. This will be a must-see battle featuring the last two NFL regular-season MVPs, making it a highly anticipated game for fans.
Stafford has won one Super Bowl already, which was oddly enough at Sofi Stadium in Super Bowl 56. The reigning NFL MVP showed last year that he still had it at 37 years old (now 38), throwing for 4,707 yards, 46 touchdowns, and eight interceptions.
At 6-foot-3, 214 pounds, Stafford still has that golden arm, where he knows how to precisely pass the football to his two all-world receivers in Puka Nakua and Davante Adams.
This game will be a challenge as the Rams still remember defeating the Bills at home in 2024 due to another memorable game by Nakua. Buffalo will be looking for revenge.
5.) Lamar Jackson- Week 8
The Bills have had the best of Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens in the playoffs recently, but that was with Sean McDermott as head coach. It's also true that the Ravens season came to a quick end when the superstar quarterback missed four games with an injury.
But now, the Bills and the Ravens have new coaching staffs, and the Ravens are hungrier to rewrite the narrative of this budding AFC rivalry.
Will the Bills keep their good fortune rolling, or will the Ravens finally give the Bills a flat tire and win this game outright?
6. Patrick Mahomes- Week 12 (Thanksgiving Night Football)
The rivalry continues, but this year it will be for the first time on Thanksgiving Night at the new Bills stadium, with Joe Brady facing off against Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs. The three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback will be coming off his torn ACL, but will be entering a new lions' den at the Bills' new stadium, with a new defensive scheme and more weaponized crowd noise.
This could finally be the year where the Bills beat the Chiefs again in the regular season, and finally in the playoffs, assuming Mahomes is healthy and Kenneth Walker is finally their answer at running back.
7. Jordan Love- Week 14 (Sunday Night Football)
The Bills better be prepared to face Jordan Love and the Packers in the tundra of Lambeau Field on Sunday Night. The 6-foot-4, 219-pound athlete threw for 3,381 yards, with 23 touchdowns and only 6 interceptions in 2025.
You could make the case that the Packers right now have no clue who their number-one receiver will be in this depleted receiver core, with Romeo Doubs leaving for New England. Still, the game's in Lambeau, but the Bills will be better prepared because they will be playing on the same heated grass surface Lambeau has, which the Bills' new stadium installed.
8. Bo Nix- Week 16 (Christmas Day)
The Bills see this game as a revenge game after losing that controversial 33-30 overtime game to these Broncos in the AFC Divisional Round last year. But this game is different, as Brady will now be the head coach and will be traveling back to Denver to take on his former boss, Sean Payton.
To make things more interesting, the two Bills coordinators, Pete Carmichael and Jim Leonhard, will be returning to face their former team, so look for both teams to use the same 3-4 attacking defensive schemes against each other's quarterbacks.
Bo Nix will be coming off a season-ending broken leg and may still not be healthy enough to play at his 2025 level, when he threw for 3,931 yards, 25 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions.
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