The Buffalo Bills will face off against both the New York Jets and the Cleveland Browns in the 2025 season. On Friday, the NFL announced that both of those teams will play in London as part of the league’s initiative to expand the pro football experience to fans across the globe.
While the Jets and Browns’ opponents haven’t been set for their London games, it’s definitely something worth keeping an eye on. The Bills did not play overseas in 2024, but they did play in London during the 2023 season when they lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are a perennial London-playing team, in Week 5.
The Bills arrived in London just days before their game while the Jaguars had been there for over a week, having played the week before in the United Kingdom. Players later said that they did not enjoy the experience at all, stating that their bodies did not adjust to the time change in time to feel completely fresh and ready to play a grueling 60 minutes. There was also concern about the condition of the field at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
While the Bills lost their last London-played game by a score of 25-20, it’s important to note that they were playing without cornerback Tre’ Davious White who had torn his Achilles’ the week before. They were also without Greg Rousseau, Shaq Lawson, and Christian Benford that day. However, during the course of the day – in fact, over the course of just 11 defensive snaps – they lost Matt Milano to a fractured leg, something he wouldn’t return from until preseason, and Shaq Lawson to a pectoral injury. Did fatigue (aka jet lag) play into those injuries? We will probably never know.
While Bills fans are usually fairly vocal about not wanting their team on foreign soil, the good news for Buffalo is that if one of these games is on their schedule, it’s likely to be an away game and not take away from games to be played at Highmark Stadium. 2025 will be the Bills last season in their current stadium, and it stands to reason that the NFL may want to let them fill it every week.
The other team to play in London during 2025, will, of course, be the Jacksonville Jaguars who are not on the Bills schedule for next season. There are still games in Germany, Brazil, Spain, and Mexico to be accounted for with rumors that Ireland may be on the NFL’s radar as well. With an extra home game for AFC teams, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if the popular Bills were to hot one of those other international games.