The NFL kicks off its season Thursday night with the defending-champion Rams hosting the Bills, who are one of the favorites to win it all this year.
The Bills are trying to recover from their meltdown in the playoffs last year when they had a 36-33 lead over the Chiefs with 13 seconds left. It took the Chiefs two plays to get into field-goal position to tie the game and win in overtime.
The loss like that can have lingering effects, and the Bills will be trying to put it behind them with a win in the opener against a Rams team attempting to become the first club to repeat since the 2003-04 Patriots.
A look at some of the other highlights of the first week:
–Unless they meet in a Super Bowl, Patrick Mahomes and Kyler Murray will meet only once every four years if they stay in opposite conferences. This will be their first one and both are coming off playoff losses last year.
–Russell Wilson will be taking on his former team when the Broncos take on the Seahawks in their opener on Monday night.. The Broncos hope Wilson will make them a contender in a division loaded with quarterbacks. The Seahawks are rebuilding without him.
–Baker Mayfield was dumped by the Browns after they got Deshaun Watson and he will be playing for Carolina against the Browns. But since Watson is suspended, he will go against Jacoby Brissett.
–The 49ers pushed all their chips on the table for Trey Lance, and he makes his debut as the starter against the Bears. But Jimmy Garoppolo is still on the team as a backup, which puts more pressure on Lance to get off to a good start.
–Tom Brady, who took a puzzling 11-day vacation from the Bucs camp (latest rumors are he was placating his wife, who was unhappy he didn’t retire), starts against the Cowboys at age 45 in the Sunday night primetime game.