Cardinals at Bills: Top 5 Storylines to Watch in NFL Week 1

The Buffalo Bills open the 2024 season by hosting the Arizona Cardinals. We look at five of the key storylines heading into the new season.

Aug 17, 2024; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott (left) and quarterback Josh Allen (17) talk on the field before the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

This article was produced in conjunction with Cover 1, a leading voice in making the intricacies of Buffalo Bills football digestible. Be sure to subscribe to their YouTube channel and podcast feeds.

---

The Buffalo Bills kick off their 2024 NFL Season by hosting the Arizona Cardinals this Sunday at 1:00 p.m. inside Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park. Here are five storylines to watch for in the hotly anticipated contest.

No Pressure

Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images

Whether it was internal, from local and/or national media, or fans, the Bills have entered the last few seasons seen as a Super Bowl or Bust type of team. Those thoughts were echoed in Las Vegas, with the oddsmakers having Buffalo near the top of the line, even with the best odds in 2022. This year, things are very different. The majority of media pundits and general football fans have Buffalo being lucky to make the playoffs, let alone make it a fifth straight year being crowned the king of the AFC East and a fifth straight year of winning a playoff game. The only other team that can make those two claims is the Kansas City Chiefs. Do the Bills thrive under a diminished spotlight or wither away in a division they've owned?

Josh Allen

Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

There is only one human who can say they have finished in the top five in NFL MVP voting each of the last two seasons, and his name is Josh Allen. The Bills signal caller enters the 2024 season second in NFL MVP odds, per the majority of sportsbooks, just behind the Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes. The Bills QB is coming off of four straight years of putting up 40 or more total touchdowns and over 4, 000 passing yards, but somehow has been called "overrated" time and again this offseason. With many picking the Bills to finish third in their own division behind the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins, now is as good a time as any for Allen to prove he deserves MVP praise.

New Offensive Faces

Mark Konezny-Imagn Images

Speaking of Josh Allen, he is missing his two favorite targets from the last four years in Stefon Diggs (traded to the Houston Texans) and Gabe Davis (signed by the Jacksonville Jaguars). With those two gone, general manager Brandon Beane went out and signed Curtis Samuel and Mack Hollins before drafting Keon Coleman to fill some major offensive roles. How well and how quickly those three acclimate to Buffalo's offense will go a long way in telling us about the top two subjects.

Related: Bills' backup QB upgraded on injury report, rookie DE lone non-participant

Seven Deadly Sins

Shawn Dowd/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Bills hope that the defensive back seven isn't creating any sins for their squad in 2024, but there are a lot of moving pieces. All-Pro linebacker Matt Milano is done for all, if not all, of the season with a bicep tear. Then there is the loss of Jordan Poyer to the Dolphins, Tre White to the Los Angeles Rams, and Micah Hyde (presumably) retired. That is four All-Pro-level players gone from the end of 2023 to the start of 2024. The team showed a lot of love for linebacker Terrel Bernard by naming him a captain, one of two going along with Josh Allen. They're going to need that same faith in Dorian Williams, Taylor Rapp, Damar Hamlin, and a few others to fix the leaking defensive backfield.

One More Move

Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

This is just my own personal feeling, but I think Beane still has something else out there he is going to do to improve the 2024 Buffalo Bills. It could be as simple as talking Hyde out of his retirement to as big as using the extra trade ammunition they have in 2025 to take a swing. I don't know what it is, but my gut says this team still has one major addition between now and the trade deadline.

— Enjoy free coverage of the Bills from Buffalo Bills on SI —

More Buffalo Bills News:

• Bills' rookie WR articulates two goals for NFL debut vs. Cardinals

• Von Miller identifies Texas-born Buffalo Bills linebacker's lone flaw

• Tracking where every Buffalo Bills' roster cut has since landed

• Bills' rookie return specialist laboring on Labor Day Weekend

• Buffalo Joe Andreessen's unlikely path from Bills' grass lot to players lot