Buffalo Bills Make Bold Predictions for Week 1 Against Cardinals

The Buffalo Bills’ Week 1 game against the Arizona Cardinals kicks off the AFC East team’s 2024 NFL season, and there are a lot of questions that will be answered on Sunday. Ahead of the Bills-Cardinals matchup, we’re making our bold Bills Week 1 predictions.

The Bills enter the 2024 season looking very different than the team that finished the 2023 campaign. Gone are the regulars like Stefon Diggs, Gabe Davis, Mitch Morse, Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde. In their place are rookies like Keon Coleman, players playing new positions like Connor McGovern or their former reserves like Damar Hamlin.

Arizona has questions of its own, like how much better will quarterback Kyler Murray be this season now that he’s fully fit? And will he quickly form a connection with star forward Marvin Harrison Jr.? What will be on Bills fans’ minds most is that the last time these two teams met, Buffalo lost 32-30 on a last-second prayer in the infamous “Hail Murray” game.

If the Bills start 1-0, the Bills Mafia has reason to be optimistic this season. If they start 0-1, there could be unrest in Western New York. So, with that as a backdrop, let’s dive right in with our bold Bills Week 1 predictions.

Keon Coleman looks like a #1 wide receiver

The biggest concern for Bills fans right now is how the team will replace Diggs and Davis, who combined for 152 catches last season.

Running back James Cook, tight end Dalton Kincaid and wide receiver Khalil Shakir will shoulder some of the duties, but we all know it’s tough to win in the NFL — especially in key moments with the game on the line — without a true WR1.

Buffalo drafted Coleman with the first pick of the second round in the 2024 NFL Draft to be that guy. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a rookie. And there will be even more pressure on Coleman in the Bills-Cardinals Week 1 matchup for two specific reasons.

For one, he’ll be stepping onto the field for Harrison Jr., the first WR taken in this year’s draft. The former Ohio State star and son of a Hall of Fame wideout will be his team’s go-to guy, so Coleman will have to try to keep up.

Second, the Bills went from 28 to 32 to 33 in that draft and took Coleman. The players that the Kansas City Chiefs and then the Carolina Panthers took with those selections were both WRs. Coleman will now forever be compared to Xavier Worthy and Xavier Legette, and Worthy looked absolutely electric in the Chiefs’ 27-20 win over the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night, rushing and receiving touchdowns.

Still, the Bills’ bold prediction for Week 1 is that Coleman can keep up the pace and have a great opening game himself, with eight catches for 85 yards and a touchdown.

Here’s the truth about the Bills’ 2024 season. Now more than ever before, it all comes down to Josh Allen. Sure, the superstar QB needs some help. All quarterbacks do. But the success or failure of his season will rest on his shoulders.

If Allen plays at the same level as he did in previous seasons, when he was one of the best small handful of QBs in the NFL, the Bills are a playoff team. If he’s not as good because he has fewer weapons, there’s a good chance Buffalo will miss the playoffs for the first time in six seasons.

However, if Allen can take his game to the next level, from great to legendary, the Bills could have a shot at the Super Bowl.

Is this completely fair to Allen? No. Is this absolutely the case for the Bills Week 1 matchup with the Cardinals? Absolutely.

All that said, the next of the Bills Week 1 bold predictions is that Allen, at least for one week, looks like a potential MVP quarterback. He’ll torch the Cardinals for 350 passing yards, 100 rushing yards and four TDs, three through the air and one on the ground.

That’s what Allen’s games will have to look like this season if the Bills want to become champions.

Accounts 35, Cardinals 20

The Bills’ schedule gets wild after Week 1, with back-to-back primetime games and four of their next five in the evening. The teams they’ll play in those five weeks are the Miami Dolphins, Jacksonville Jaguars, Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans (the one non-primetime game) and the New York Jets.

That glove will make or break the Bills’ 2024 season, which makes it important they enter that stretch 1-0. And that’s exactly what they’ll do.

The Cardinals may be good in a year or two, but they’re not good now. Buffalo will make light work of Arizona — especially if a Pacific time zone team comes east to play at 1 p.m. ET — and everyone will look good.