No AFC East divisional matchups to open the 2024 NFL regular season
Buffalo Bills fans can breathe a sigh of relief as we’ve made it to the 2024 NFL regular season. Things officially kick off on Thursday evening, with the Baltimore Ravens taking on the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.
All four AFC East teams get the season underway Sunday, and that’s with no divisional matchups in Week 1. Let’s take a look at which teams the AFC East will face off against this coming weekend.
Buffalo Bills vs. Arizona Cardinals
The Bills open the regular season at home playing host to the Cardinals. Arizona is not to be taken lightly after a pretty disappointing season in 2023. Quarterback Kyler Murray is fully recovered from his ACL injury two seasons ago and rookie wide receiver Marvin Harrison, Jr. is ready to take the league by storm as one of the best young receivers. Buffalo will roll out a new and hopefully improved offense after the departures of wide receivers Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis. We’ll see if the “Everybody Eats” mentality proves successful on offense. The good news is that quarterback Josh Allen is still playing, which automatically increases Buffalo’s odds of victory.
New England Patriots at Cincinnati Bengals
New Patriots head coach Jared Mayo has a tough test in his first game, taking on a hungry Bengals team. After missing the playoffs last season, Cincinnati is anxious to return to greatness behind quarterback Joe Burrow who dealt with injuries all last year. The wild card in this game will be the status of wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase who as of publishing, is still holding in as he seeks a new contract. For the Patriots, quarterback Jacoby Brissett will get the start while third overall pick Drake Maye watches from the sidelines. How much patience will the fan base have before they start barking for Maye.
Jacksonville Jaguars at Miami Dolphins
Much like Buffalo, Miami gets to begin their season at home, with Jacksonville making the short journey over to Hard Rock Stadium. It’s time for head coach Mike McDaniel to take this team over the hump after getting a three-year contract extension. He has been successful during the regular season — at least until the calendar flips to December. The Dolphins have yet to win a playoff game under his reign. Then we all know the expectations that quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has as the team just extended him as well. Thankfully for Tagovailoa, he can still throw the ball to wide receiver Tyreek Hill who will make another attempt at becoming the first receiver to have 2,000 yards.
New York Jets at San Francisco 49ers
Jets fans are certainly ready for the return of quarterback Aaron Rodgers on Monday Night Football to close out Week 1 of the 2024 regular season. The Jets continue to put all of their eggs in Rodgers’ basket as they’re looking to end one of the longest active playoff droughts in professional sports. The team certainly has the talent but there have been whispers of a culture issue behind the scenes. Obviously take that with a grain of salt because at the end of the day, winning can usually cure everything. On the other sideline, the 49ers are looking to get back to the Super Bowl to finally raise the Lombardi Trophy for the first time in a long time. They were able to give wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and left tackle Trent Williams new contracts to end their holdouts and running back Christian McCaffrey returned to practice after dealing with a nagging injury throughout camp.