Buffalo Bills: NFL reportedly set to release full 2020 season schedule

According to a report from ESPN, the NFL will release a full unaltered 17-week 2020 schedule next week for the Buffalo Bills and the rest of the league.

One of the simple pleasures for any sports fan, is when the schedule for their favorite team is released. Even in the face of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Buffalo Bills supporters will still get to experience this joy.

According to a report from Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, the NFL is set to release a full unaltered 17-week 2020 schedule next week. This will include a Sept. 10 opener and the Super Bowl on Feb. 7.

This intriguing news was confirmed to Fowler by league spokesman Brian McCarthy, who said they plan to start on time. If that sounds optimistic at this stage, consider that McCarthy apparently also said the release of the schedule would include visions of fans in the stands.

More from Buffalo Bills

• Buffalo Bills: Von Miller drawing inspiration from Bruce Smith
• Buffalo Bills: Von Miller the ideal addition both on and off the field
• Buffalo Bills: Majority of new stadium funding will come from public
• Buffalo Bills vs. Patriots: Odds, Spread, Over/Under & Betting Pick
• Buffalo Bills run game providing much-needed boost to offense

In fairness to the NFL, even though it’s — mostly — business as usual at this juncture, they have prepared various contingency plans if the virus shows no signs of being contained nearer to the presumptive start of the 2020 campaign. As per Fowler, this includes delaying the beginning of the season until mid-October.

Pending whenever the regular season does kick off, Fowler advised that teams are already preparing to conduct offseason workouts and June minicamps virtually. As we’ve already noted recently, at this stage it is the pandemic which will determine the timeline and how everything is conducted, rather than the other way around.

Returning to the release of the schedule, Buffalo Bills fans will be particularly excited to learn when the team will provisionally face their opponents. The Bill enter the 2020 campaign with a justified sense of optimism not felt around Western New York for a long time.

This justified optimism is evidenced by the recent release of the spread for each of the Bills’ 16 regular season games in 2020. As per Nick Wojton of Bills Wire, which is part of USA Today, the team is favored in 11 of their games.

The Bills are underdogs in just four contests, with three of them on the road, while the other one is a pick em. The underdog games in question will see them host the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, while travelling to face the San Francisco 49ers, New England Patriots and Tennessee Titans.

Following the official release of the 2020 schedule, all that will remain is to wait and find out when exactly it will be able to start. Under the circumstances we’re sure fans won’t mind too much if the season doesn’t begin on time in September, just so long as it actually does happen.

What is your take on the NFL’s reported decision to release an unaltered 2020 season schedule next week? How optimistic are you that the regular season will start on time? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.