The Buffalo Bills already knew who they would be playing in the 2026 season, but now they know when they will be playing their opponents. The Bills dropped their schedule earlier this evening and the NFL definitely did not give the Bills any big time breaks. While they do get to be at home in three of their first four games, they have more disadvantages to go up against.
However, for as many things that are going against the Bills for this season, the NFL did gift Buffalo an advantage that is quiet but super important. Buffalo's games against their AFC East rivals are pretty spread out up until the final two weeks where they will be playing the Dolphins in Week 17 and then the Jets in Week 18.
Their first division opponent will be the New England Patriots in Week 4 where it will be a 1PM battle in Orchard Park. Buffalo and New England will then meet up in Week 13 in Foxborough. The Bills don't play the Jets until Week 10 in New York before finishing out the season series in the final week of the regular season.
When it comes to the Dolphins, that’s where the gift comes into play and fans may not realize it. With Miami rebuilding with a new regime, they are already put in a tough spot this season. However, they have a huge disadvantage that Bills fans will love to see.
Bills have massive advantage against Dolphins in 2026
Buffalo and Miami don’t play each other until Week 11 on November 22nd, and that game will be in Buffalo. So, the weather will definitely be colder in Orchard Park and you can never rule out snow either, especially when it comes to Western New York in general.
Then the Bills will travel down to Miami in Week 17 for a January battle against the Dolphins that isn’t in the scorching sun that it would have been had these teams met in September or October.
So, the Bills avoided an early matchup against the Dolphins in Miami where the Bills would have potentially had to deal with the heat and humidity. Instead, the Dolphins will have to come to Buffalo when the weather is getting colder and they miss the chance to host Buffalo early in the season.
Back in the 2022 season, the Bills went to Miami early on and it was a very hot and humid game and the Bills lost a lot of players due to injuries and overheating. Buffalo ended up losing that game 21-19. Then the Dolphins came up to Buffalo late in December where it was a cold game and snowballs were being thrown throughout the stadium. Buffalo squeaked out a 32-29 win to push themselves ahead in the division.
Since then, the NFL has tried to have Miami come to Buffalo early in the season and Buffalo go to Miami in the middle to the later part of the season. Going into 2026, the NFL gifted the Bills a huge advantage against Miami and Buffalo has to take full advantage of it.
Add us as a preferred source on Google