The Buffalo Bills Week 1 matchup with the Arizona Cardinals kicks off the AFC East squad’s 2024 NFL season, and there are a lot of questions that will start to get answered on Sunday. Ahead of the Bills-Cardinals game, we’ll be making our bold Bills Week 1 predictions.

The Bills enter the 2024 campaign looking a lot different than the team that ended the 2023 season. Gone are longtime stalwarts like Stefon Diggs, Gabe Davis, Mitch Morse, Jordan Poyer, and Micah Hyde. In their place are rookies like Keon Coleman, players playing new positions, like Connor McGovern, or their former backups, like Damar Hamlin.

Arizona has its own questions, such as how much better will quarterback Kyler Murray be this season now that he’s fully healthy? And will he quickly establish a connection with star prospect Marvin Harrison Jr.? What Bills fans will think about most, though, is that the last time these two teams met, Buffalo lost 32-30 on a last-second prayer in the infamous “Hail Murray” game.

If the Bills start 1-0, Bills Mafia will have reason for optimism this season. If they start 0-1, there could be trouble in Western New York. So, with that as the backdrop, let’s get right into our bold Bills Week 1 predictions.

Keon Coleman looks like a No. 1 wide receiver

The biggest worry for Bills fans right now is about how the team will replace Diggs and Davis. Those two combined for 152 catches last season.

Running back James Cook, tight end Dalton Kincaid, and wide receiver Khalil Shakir will pick up some of that slack, but we all know that it is hard to win in the NFL — especially in big moments with the game on the line — without a true WR1.

Buffalo drafted Coleman with the first pick of the second round in the 2024 NFL Draft to be that guy. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a rookie, though. And there will be even more pressure on Coleman in the Bills-Cardinals Week 1 matchup for two specific reasons.

First, he will be across the field from Harrison Jr., the first WR taken in this year’s draft. The former Ohio State star and son of a Hall of Fame wideout will be his team’s go-to guy, so Coleman will have to try and keep pace.

Second, the Bills traded down in that draft from 28 to 32 to 33 and then took Coleman. The players that the Kansas City Chiefs and then the Carolina Panthers took with those selections were both WRs. Coleman will now forever get compared to Xavier Worthy and Xavier Legette, and Worthy looked absolutely electric Thursday night on the Chiefs' 27-20 opening night victory over the Baltimore Ravens with a rushing and a receiving touchdown.

Still, the bold Bills Week 1 prediction here is that Coleman keeps pace and has a breakout opening game of his own, going for eight catches for 85 yards and a touchdown.

Josh Allen starts MVP buzz

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen (17) looks to throw the ball against the Chicago Bears during the first half at Highmark Stadium.
Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

Here’s the truth of the 2024 Bills season. Even more so now than in years before, it all comes down to Josh Allen. Sure, the superstar QB needs some help. All quarterbacks do. But the success or failure of his season will fall on his shoulders.

If Allen plays at the same level of seasons past, where he is one of the best small handful of QBs in the NFL, the Bills will be a playoff team. If he’s not as good due to having fewer weapons, there is a good chance Buffalo misses the playoffs for the first time in six seasons.

However, if Allen can take his play up one more level, from simply great to legendary status, the Bills can be Super Bowl contenders.

Is this totally fair to Allen? No. Is it absolutely the case heading into the Bills Week 1 matchup with the Cardinals? Absolutely.

All this said, the next of the bold Bills Week 1 predictions is that, at least for one week, Allen looks like a potential MVP quarterback. He will torch the Cardinals to the tune of 350 passing yards, 100 rushing yards, and four TDs, three through the air and one on the ground.

That is what Allen’s games have to look like this season if the Bills want to be champions.

Bills 35, Cardinals 20

The Bills schedule gets wild after Week 1, with back-to-back-to-back primetime games and four of their next five in the evening hours. The teams they will play over the course of those five weeks are the Miami Dolphins, Jacksonville Jaguars, Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans (the one non-primetime game), and New York Jets.

That gauntlet will make or break the Bills’ 2024 season, which also makes it important they go into that stretch at 1-0. And that’s exactly what they will do.

The Cardinals may be good in a year or two, but they just aren’t now. Buffalo will make light work of Arizona — especially as a Pacific time zone team coming east to play at 1 pm ET — and everyone will look good doing it.