After the Houston Texans beat the Pittsburgh Steelers to close out the Wild Card round of the playoffs, we finally found out when the Denver Broncos would be hosting the Buffalo Bills in the Divisional round.
We already knew going into Monday night's game that the Broncos would be playing the Bills on Saturday, but there were two time slots available, and the Broncos definitely got the better of the two. The NFL has officially scheduled kickoff for a very familiar time slot to the Broncos: 2:30 PM MT.
The Broncos will have every advantage they possibly can for the conditions of the game, all the way down to the start time.
Broncos and Bills will kick off at 2:30 PM MT on Saturday afternoon
In terms of having ideal conditions throughout the playoffs, you really can't possibly ask for more than the Denver Broncos have gotten.
As the #1 overall seed in the AFC, the Broncos were the only team in the conference to have the opportunity to just watch everyone else beat each other up in the Wild Card round. They had the opportunity to reset after the regular season, get everyone healthy, and move on without playing a game.
Beyond that, the Broncos will be getting the Bills banged up and on short rest. It can be advantageous to be in the groove of playing as well, but the Bills had a lot of wear and tear after that matchup against the Jaguars, and they had to immediately turn around and get ready for the Broncos on six days rest.
On top of all that, Buffalo has to come into the Mile High City, where they haven't been since the 2020-21 season. It will have been over five calendar years since some of them have played in the conditions of Denver, which are a major factor for players, especially those who have never done it before.
We've also talked about the fact that if the Broncos win this game, they will have a full day's rest advantage over whoever they would play in the AFC Championship Game. More rest on the front end, more rest on the back end.
In terms of having the ideal kickoff time be 2:30 PM MT, this is pretty much the Broncos' weekly time slot. This is the Bills' version of playing at 1 PM ET, which not coincidentally was the time the Broncos played them last year.
The tables have turned. The script has been flipped. Hopefully, the Broncos can take advantage of all these...advantages.