The Buffalo Bills will begin their regular season on Sunday with their first contest on the road against the Houston Texans. Kickoff from NRG Stadium is at 1 p.m.
It is the first season with head coach Joe Brady at the helm. It is expect there will be plenty of new layers to this team
It is another opportunity for head coach Joe Brady and his staff to assess his roster before cutting down to 53 players at the end of the summer. On the flip side, it gives those same players and opportunity to impress.
With that, here are Bills Wire's five things to watch for in Week 1:
Moment of pressure for Brady
While Brady is going to play it down and say it is not a big deal this week, it is. Sunday will be Brady's first NFL game as a head coach and he's one of the NFL's youngest in his role.
There will be pivotal points during the game in Houston that will fall at the head coach's feet, as will be the case in every game. How does Brady handle the hot seat?
Changes on defense
The Bills have revamped their defense throughout the 2026 offseason. It started when the team fired Sean McDermott as their head coach and eventually named Jim Leonhard the defensive coordinator.
Part of Leonhard's scheme involves aggressive play, which will be spearheaded by fitting new players such as safety CJ Gardner-Johnson and pass rusher Bradley Chubb.
How different will Leonhard's defense look than the one we've become used to under McDermott? We will get our first look at that on Sunday.
Josh Allen's difficulty vs. Texans
Bills quarterback Josh Allen is 0-4 on the road against the Texans in his career (including playoffs). In those, we have not seen Allen at his best. He has just one touchdown pass and two interceptions in those combined. In his last outing in Houston, Allen was sacked eight times.
Will Allen, Brady and the Bills manage to put up a better fight this round?
Dealing with the aggressive Texans defense
As noted, eight sacks were allowed by the Bills against the Texans in their last meeting just last season. All-Pro pass rusher Will Anderson had 2.5 sacks and Danielle Hunter added another two. Buffalo's tackles on the offensive line, Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown had terrible outings.
That pressure caused Allen to throw two interceptions as well.
How do the Bills handle the pressure and aggressive game plan the Texans are likely to send their way?
New additions
As is always the case in Week 1, the first game of the season will cause eyes to go on the new faces.
At the top of the list for the Bills is the addition of No. 1 receiver DJ Moore. How will he impact the offense? Defensively, Buffalo's top pick at the 2026 NFL Draft was pass rusher TJ Parker and other draft picks such as linebacker Kaleb Elarms-Orr have impressed this summer.
How do all the new Bills fare in their first games with Buffalo?
This article originally appeared on Bills Wire: Bills at Texans: 5 things to watch for during Week 1
