The Jess Cardinals and Buffalo Bills play each other Sunday in their season opener. The Bills are home favorites. The Cardinals are confident and are looking to get an upset.

After all, the last two times they have opened on the road against a team that went to the playoffs the previous season, they have come away with upset wins.

What are the experts saying?

Jess Root, Cards Wire

I believe the Cardinals will do better than expected. I believe the offense will move the ball. I believe Allen and Cook will be tough to defend. Arizona’s defense will come out more physically than the Bills are prepared for but Allen will rally the offense back.

It is a high-scoring, close affair that comes down to the final possession. Bills 30, Cardinals 24

Nick Wojton, Bills Wire

A team like the Cardinals, who didn’t have the best luck with health last season, are always overlooked. People forget injuries occur. While I have a 10-point difference, I think the Bills probably tack on a field goal late to get that gap but I’m expecting it to be pretty close throughout the day… an exciting game, but not quite the “Hail Murray” of years past.

Bills 27, Cardinals 17

Seth Cox, SB Nation/Rise Up, See Red podcast

Bills 31, Cardinals 28

NFL Network panel

Nine of the 10 experts picked the Bills to win, although Daniel Jeremiah does have the Cardinals with the upset.

All experts

According to NFLpickwatch, of 206 experts making picks, 90% pick the Bills.

The noteworthy experts picking the Cardinals to win are NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah, NBC Sports’ Chris Simms and SI’s Connor Orr.

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.

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The Arizona Cardinals are on the road for their season opener on Sunday against the Buffalo Bills. They announced their full 2024 uniform schedule earlier in the week.

But what will they and the Bills wear in the game?

https://twitter.com/AZCardinals/status/1832114670536421568

We knew the Cardinals would wear their road whites.

The Bills will wear blue on white.

https://twitter.com/BuffaloBills/status/1831369130328588659?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1831369130328588659%7Ctwgr%5Ef9fd4d3f53f875ce2cda16da8c98c392e597c146%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbillswire.usatoday.com%2F2024%2F09%2F07%2Funiforms-buffalo-bills-arizona-cardinals-nfl-week-1%2F

Their game kicks off Sunday at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. Arizona time) from Highmark Stadium and airs on CBS.

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.

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The Arizona Cardinals will go with the players they have on the 53-man roster on Sunday in their season opener against the Buffalo Bills. Able to elevate up to two players from the practice squad, they elected not to for Sunday’s game.

Typically, a team will use the practice squad elevations for injury management or special teams roles.

Because the Cardinals are pretty healthy (only receiver Xavier Weaver was ruled out of the game), they have all their roles filled.

Players can be elevated from the practice squad and revert back to it without being subject to waivers only three times. Without having to use that on anyone this week, they have at least one extra week for everyone before that expires.

The Bills elevated two players — center Will Clapp and defensive end Kameron Cline.

Buffalo will be without two defensive ends. Javon Solomon was ruled out on the final injury report on Friday and fellow defensive end Dawuane Smoot, questionable on the injury report Friday, was downgraded to out on Saturday.

The Cardinals and Bills kick off Sunday at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. Arizona time).

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.

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The Arizona Cardinals face the Buffalo Bills in a tough road matchup to open the season. Both teams have questions entering the season. The Bills have a remade receiver room and a remade secondary.

The Cardinals added talent to what was a terrible defense in 2023 but still have major questions with the pass rush.

To prepare for the game, Bills Wire managing editor Nick Wojton takes us behind enemy lines, answering a few questions and making his predictions for the game.

QB Josh Allen

Is Josh Allen really overrated?

I don’t think he’s overrated at all. From a Buffalo perspective, watching him week in and week out, you’ve just got to take the bad with the good. While Allen certainly does turn the ball over a lot at times, he more than makes up for it with all the points he does put up. It outweighs his giveaways by a lot, he just hasn’t won the ‘big one’ yet and that’s hard to do when you’re living in a world where Patrick Mahomes exists.

No Diggs, Davis

How do you think the offense will look this year with no Stefon Diggs/Gabriel Davis?

The Bills had plenty of big plays down the field with that duo. Davis just made a lot of money out of it with the Jacksonville Jaguars. While they will continue to come in 2024, I’m expecting them to be of a different variety. Buffalo’s offense is now setup to be one where Allen gets the ball out of his hand quicker so he can let his playmakers do the work. He’s still Josh Allen at QB and he’s still going to take his shots, but there will be opportunities for those around him to make the splash players this year.

The defense

What are you most excited about and most worried about on defense?

I’m looking forward to seeing how this pass rush unfolds, specifically Von Miller. He was still the same old Von before his ACL injury and he just did not look good when he returned last season. Now two years removed from that huge injury, the Bills are hoping he’s back to his best and that’d be a huge boost. The worry will sit with Dorian Williams, a.k.a. Matt Milano’s replacement. Milano is a fantastic defender and easily Buffalo’s best. He could miss the entire season due to a bicep injury.

Matchups

Which matchups are you most looking forward to seeing?

It’s probably the low-hanging fruit, but Marvin Harrison Jr. against Keon Coleman. OK, two wide receivers won’t face each other head-to-head, but there is a lot of hope riding with these two rookies and seeing what production Coleman has out of the gate compared to Harrison will be a fun watch in a potentially high-scoring game.

Prediction