It’s official: National football watchers are going to be sick of the Buffalo Bills in December. The NFL announced the Bills’ game against the Denver Broncos will be moved from Sunday, December 20 to Saturday December 19.
The move is part of a new late-season effort to get more national TV games as part of the league’s contract. Last year, Buffalo was moved from Sunday to Saturday, as well, late in the season. They lost a 21-14 game to the New England Patriots on Saturday, December 21.
In total, there were five games for the NFL to choose from to move to Saturday. The NFL has only chosen two to this point; Buffalo vs Denver and the Carolina Panthers vs. Green Bay Packers. Buffalo/Denver is in the 4:30 p.m. EST spot while the Green Bay/Carolina game is at 8:15 p.m. EST. They could still move one of the other games into the early spot if they’d like to feature the Houston Texans vs Indianapolis Colts, New York Jets at Los Angeles Rams, or the Detroit Lions at Tennessee Titans.
In May, we ranked which games were most likely to be moved putting the Bills vs Broncos at number three on the list behind the Texans vs Colts and Jets vs Rams. Houston was coming off a playoff victory but has fallen off in 2020 while the Colts lead the AFC South. New York and Los Angeles are massive TV markets but the Jets’ 0-10 start makes them much less appealing.
With the move, Buffalo will have four nationally televised games in the month of December. They open the month on Monday Night Football against the San Francisco 49ers, then play the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday Night Football before their Saturday contest against the Denver Broncos is followed by another Monday Night Football game against the New England Patriots. Their final game against the Miami Dolphins in January could still be flexed to Sunday night if it’s to determine the AFC East crown.