With their 27-24 victory on Sunday afternoon on the road against the No. 3 seed Jacksonville Jaguars, the No. 6 seed Buffalo Bills are moving on to the AFC Divisional Round for the sixth consecutive season, which is now the longest active streak since the Kansas City Chiefs missed this year’s playoffs entirely.
Because this matchup was the first of three AFC matchups this weekend, the Bills don’t yet know their opponent for next weekend.
If they end up being the team with the lowest remaining seed in the AFC after Wild Card weekend, they would travel to Denver to take on the No. 1 seed Broncos. But that would only happen if the No. 2 seed New England Patriots win tonight at home against the No. 7 Los Angeles Chargers.
Will the Bills play next Saturday or Sunday?
If the Chargers pull off the upset, they would head to Denver, and Buffalo would travel to either Houston or Pittsburgh, depending on who wins Monday night’s game between the No. 5 seed Texans and the No. 4 seed Steelers.
Ever since the NFL added the Monday night Wild Card game back in 2021, the winner of that game has always been scheduled to play on the Sunday of Divisional Round weekend, rather than Saturday, simply to keep things as fair as possible as far as rest is concerned.
There is zero reason to believe that they will deviate from that approach this year, and it’s also worth mentioning the fact that the NFL generally schedules one AFC game and one NFC game on both the Saturday and the Sunday of the Divisional Round.
So if New England wins tonight, they would host the winner of Houston-Pittsburgh, and that game would likely be contested on Sunday, which would presumably give Buffalo a Saturday game in Denver.
On the flip side, if Los Angeles wins tonight to lock up a trip to Denver, Buffalo would take on the Houston-Pittsburgh winner, and that game would likely be slotted into the Sunday schedule.
Of their three possible opponents for next weekend – the Broncos, Texans, and Steelers – the Bills faced both the Texans and Steelers this year. They lost in Houston, but they won in Pittsburgh. Their most recent game against Denver came in last year’s playoffs, which resulted in a home victory for Buffalo.