After seven agonizing months, meaningful NFL football will be making its return on Thursday night. And what a doozy we'll get to open the new season, as the reigning Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams welcome the Buffalo Bills, the preseason favorite to lift the Lombardi Trophy this season, to SoFi Stadium.
After winning a second straight AFC East crown and coming up 13 seconds short of a second straight trip to the AFC Championship Game, Buffalo is expected to take the next step this season in a stacked AFC, led by NFL MVP favorite Josh Allen.
While the Rams are the champs, they don't sit atop the preseason NFC title odds. Instead, the retired and then unretired Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers do, followed by the Rams and Green Bay Packers.
These two teams last met in Week 3 of the 2020 season and played a thriller in Orchard Park.