The Bills are going away for training camp again this summer.
The team announced on Friday that they will be returning to St. John Fisher University in Rochester, New York for this year’s camp. It will be the 25th time that the Bills have held training camp on the campus.
Dates for the start of camp and open practices as well as other details about the team’s plans for their preseason preparations will be announced at a later date.
The Bills will have preseason games with the Giants, Bears, and Buccaneers in August. There have not been any announcements about joint practices at this point.
The NFL’s two Sunday afternoon TV packages have long been divided up with Fox primarily getting NFC games and CBS primarily getting AFC games, but in recent years the league has had more flexibility to move games across networks. And Fox hasn’t always been happy with that.
Fox executive Mike Mulvihill told Richard Deitsch of TheAthletic.com that in past years his network has felt it was losing more good NFC games than it was getting back in good AFC games, but that Fox is pleased with how the NFL divvied up the schedule this season.
“We talked a lot with the league about the idea that ‘cross-flex,’ which is the policy by which NFC games can go to CBS and AFC games can go to Fox, needed to be a little bit more balanced,” Mulvihill said. “That cross-flex mechanism was created to help balance the (media) packages, and in the years since then, the AFC has become significantly better than it was when that protocol was agreed upon. They (other outlets) were getting better NFC games than we were getting back from the AFC side. It just became a little bit imbalanced.”
This year, Week 14 Bengals-Bills is a big AFC game with star quarterbacks Josh Allen and Joe Burrow, and likely playoff implications, that the NFL gave to Fox. That’s a game that wouldn’t have gone to Fox under the stricter NFC/AFC split, and it’s the kind of game that makes Fox very pleased with the NFL’s schedule makers.
Linebacker Roquan Smith was pleased to see what the NFL had up their sleeve for the Ravens in Week One.
The Ravens’ 2024 season came to an end against the Bills in a 27-25 road loss in the divisional round of the playoffs and they will be back in Buffalo on the first Sunday night of the 2025 season. During an appearance on NFL Network, Smith said that the defeat served as “motivation throughout the offseason” and that makes going back to the scene of Baltimore’s “misery” has him excited to get to September.
“Yeah, just how I like it,” Smith said. “Revenge is best served as a cold dish, you know. So, it will be nice to get up to Buffalo and get a little payback for those guys from the end of the year.”
Week One results don’t always prove predictive in the long haul and Smith said he knows teams have to show their ability “game in and game out” to compete at the highest levels, but there’s still a lot to be said for getting off on the right foot against a team that expects to be a title contender this year.
The 2025 season will mark the Bills’ final year at the current Highmark Stadium before they move across the street to their new home field next year.
Buffalo will begin and end the commemorative season at home, beginning with the 2024 postseason rematch against the Ravens.
While there is almost always a risk of snow in Buffalo, the Bills will have three of their last five games at home — including each of the last two. Cincinnati will come to town for Week 14 on Dec. 7. Then Philadelphia visits in Week 17 on Dec. 28 and the Jets will be in town for the last regular-season game at the current Highmark Stadium in Week 18.
Buffalo has been one of the league’s top teams throughout the 2020s, winning five consecutive AFC East titles. But the Bills are slated for just five standalone games in 2025.
The first will come in Week 1 against the Ravens. The Bills will host the Dolphins in Week 3 on Thursday night and the Patriots in Week 5 on Sunday night. Then in Week 6, the Bills will be in Atlanta to face the Falcons on Monday night.
But after that, Buffalo’s lone remaining primetime game is in Week 12 when the club visits Houston for a Thursday night matchup. The Bills do have games scheduled at 4:25 p.m. on Sundays against the Chiefs (Week 9), the Steelers (Week 13), the Bengals (Week 14), and the Eagles (Week 17).
Thursday Night Football will begin its fourth season on Prime Video with a matchup between the Commanders and Packers in Week 2.
Both teams reached the postseason in 2024 and feature exciting young quarterbacks in Washington’s Jayden Daniels and Green Bay’s Jordan Love.
The Dolphins, Bills, Seahawks, Rams, and Broncos will each have a pair of Thursday night games on Prime Video. While the Eagles also will be featured on Prime Video twice, one of those games will be on Black Friday against the Bears.
Prime Video’s final regular season game will be the Christmas Night matchup between the Chiefs and Broncos, with Dec. 25 falling on a Thursday in 2025.
Prime Video will also host an exclusive Wild Card round postseason matchup on Jan. 10 or Jan. 11 to round out its slate.
The full Prime Video Thursday Night Football schedule for the 2025 season is:
Week 2: Commanders at Packers
Week 3: Dolphins at Bills
Week 4: Seahawks at Cardinals
Week 5: 49ers at Rams
Week 6: Eagles at Giants
Week 7: Steelers at Bengals
Week 8: Vikings at Chargers
Week 9: Ravens at Dolphins
Week 10: Raiders at Broncos
Week 11: Jets at Patriots
Week 12: Bills at Texans
Week 13 (Black Friday): Bears at Eagles
Week 14: Cowboys at Lions
Week 15: Falcons at Buccaneers
Week 16: Rams at Seahawks
Week 17 (Christmas night): Broncos at Chiefs
The last two NFL MVPs will square off on the first Sunday night of the 2025 season.
2023 MVP Lamar Jackson and the Ravens will pay a visit to Buffalo to take on 2024 MVP Josh Allen and the Bills. That game and the other 17 Sunday night matchups will be broadcast on NBC, although we’ll have to wait until the end of Week 17 to know who will be involved in the final game of the year.
The Bills beat the Ravens in the divisional round of the playoffs last year and both teams have designs on supplanting the Chiefs as the top team in the AFC this season.
Flex scheduling rules could change the schedule during the season. It may be used up to twice between Weeks 5-10 of the regular season and at the league’s discretion from Weeks 11-17.
The initial schedule for Sunday Night Football during the 2025 season appears below:
Week 1 - Ravens at Bills.
Week 2 - Falcons at Vikings.
Week 3 - Chiefs at Giants.
Week 4 - Packers at Cowboys.
Week 5 - Patriots at Bills.
Week 6 - Lions at Chiefs.
Week 7 - Falcons at 49ers.
Week 8 - Packers at Steelers.
Week 9 - Seahawks at Commanders.
Week 10 - Steelers at Chargers.
Week 11 - Lions at Eagles.
Week 12 - Buccaneers at Rams.
Week 13 - Broncos at Commanders.
Week 14 - Texans at Chiefs.
Week 15 - Vikings at Cowboys.
Week 16 - Bengals at Dolphins.
Week 17 - Bears at 49ers.
Week 18 - TBD.
For seven seasons, Jordan Poyer roamed the Bills defensive backfield, becoming one of Buffalo’s team leaders under head coach Sean McDermott.
That tenure came to an end last offseason, as Poyer was one of several veterans to get released as the Bills reshaped their roster for 2024. He ended up signing with AFC East rival Miami, starting 16 games for the club. But now at the age of 34, Poyer is once again a free agent.
In a Wednesday interview with NFL Network’s Good Morning Football, Poyer said he wants to play in the upcoming season — and there’s one place he’d most like to do it.
“I love the game, you know? I’m in a place right now where I played 12 years, extremely thankful and blessed to have played the game for such a long time,” Poyer said. “Last year was an extremely tough year on so many levels. Our team wasn’t very good. I didn’t play as well as I wanted to play. It was just a really tough year. Obviously, transitioning from Buffalo to Miami, cultures being different, systems being different, it just didn’t work out the way that anybody had hoped. But at the same time, I’m thankful for it all, thankful for all the moments, all the friendships. Would I like to play again? Absolutely. Whatever that looks like.
“It’d be dope, it’d be ideal to have a fantasy ending and be able to retire a Bill, but who knows? I’m just being an open book right now, really enjoying life for what it is.”
Poyer added that he’s thankful for all the teams he’s played for in his career, but said Buffalo is home.
“My heart is always going to be there,” Poyer said. “I’m just playing it by ear right now, but would I love to play? Absolutely.”
Poyer started 107 games for Buffalo, recording 48 passes defensed with 22 interceptions from 2017-2023.
Free agent wide receiver Gabe Davis visited the 49ers on Monday. Jordan Schultz of Fox Sports reports that Davis now is on his way to visit the Giants.
Giants head coach Brian Daboll was the offensive coordinator in Buffalo in Davis’ first two seasons.
Davis spent his first four seasons with the Bills after they made him a fourth-round pick in 2020. The Jaguars signed him in free agency a year ago, but Davis caught only 20 passes for 239 yards and two touchdowns in 10 games in 2024 before tearing the meniscus in his left knee.
The Jaguars recently released Davis with a failed physical designation.
Davis made 163 catches for 2,730 yards and 27 touchdowns in four seasons with the Bills.
The Seahawks are taking a look at a veteran cornerback.
Per Tom Pelissero of NFL Media, Raasul Douglas is visiting with Seattle on Tuesday.
Douglas, 29, had been with Buffalo since the club acquired him midway through the 2023 season. He started 15 games for the team last year, recording five passes defensed with one forced fumble. He also recorded five tackles for loss.
A third-round pick in 2017, Douglas played his first three season for the Eagles before the Panthers claimed him off waivers in 2020. He then was able to latch on with the Packers after brief stints with three other teams in 2021, where he remained until the Bills traded for him.
Late last month, the Dolphins were also reportedly in contact with Douglas. But the two sides did not strike a deal.
In 120 career games with 80 starts, Douglas has recorded 79 passes defensed with 19 interceptions.
A report last month indicated that running back James Cook will play for the Bills in 2025 despite being unlikely to get the contract extension he’s looking for ahead of the season, but Cook isn’t publicly committing to anything at this point in the calendar.
Cook was at a Celebrity Poker Tour event in Las Vegas and he was asked about his contract situation. Cook said “however it works out, it works out” and that he works to make sure that “the business is a business, and just do whatever I can to always be there for my teammates.”
Cook has not been taking part in the Bills’ voluntary offseason work and he declined to share his plans for the mandatory portions of the program or training camp.
“I necessarily don’t want to talk about it right now, because it’s like, it’s something I want to hold in to myself . . . just let the business take care of the business,” Cook said, via PokerNews.com.
Bills General Manager Brandon Beane said that Cook has to be “the guy we saw” pick up 2,834 yards from scrimmage and 24 touchdowns to get paid. A holdout might impact his ability to do that, but Cook’s plans are going to remain under wraps a little while longer.
