Bills-Rams: Start time, how to watch and stream 2022 NFL kickoff

It’s been 208 days since Super Bowl LVI, but football is finally back.

The Buffalo Bills will take on the Los Angeles Rams Thursday to kick off the 2022 NFL season. It’s just the 13th meeting between the two franchises, and comes with most experts predicting this could finally be the year Josh Allen delivers a Lombardi Trophy to Buffalo’s long-suffering fans.

The game will air on NBC and feature not-so-new play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico, who has already called 22 games (19 regular season, three preseason) alongside analyst Cris Collinsworth, who enters his 14th season on Sunday Night Football. Tirico replaces legendary broadcaster Al Michaels, a move he’s been waiting for since leaving ESPN to join NBC in 2016.

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“I’ve been waiting a long time to get back in the chair and looking forward to the full season,” Tirico said on a recent conference call.

The booth isn’t the only change fans will notice. NBC is rolling out new graphics and camera angles, including pylon cameras for the first time. But don’t expect anything crazy from new coordinating producer Rob Hyland, who is replacing Fred Gaudelli, who left to run Thursday Night Football for Amazon’s Prime Video.

“The presentation might look a little different. Some of the camera angles may be unique and new to this season,” Hyland said. “But what has made the show so successful will continue moving forward.”

Here’s everything you need to know to watch or stream the Bills-Rams game:

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Coverage on NBC begins with Football Night in America at 7 p.m., hosted by Maria Taylor and featuring analysts Tony Dungy, Jason Garrett, Chris Simms, Jac Collinsworth, and Rodney Harrison.

The pregame show will also feature a couple of new faces in former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett and fantasy football expert Matthew Berry, who left ESPN after 15 years to join NBC last month. NFL Insider Mike Florio will also join the broadcast from his home studio.

The Bills famously lost four Super Bowls in a row during the 1990s (the closest was Super Bowl XXV, which they lost on Scott Norwood’s missed field goal), but remain one of 12 NFL teams that have yet to take home a Lombardi Trophy.

Four teams have never made it to the Super Bowl — the Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, and Jacksonville Jaguars.

Yes, it’s Thursday, but tonight’s game is technically part of NBC’s Sunday Night Football package. Here’s NBC’s full slate of games this season, with the Eagles scheduled to play in two of the network’s prime time games — Oct. 16 against the Dallas Cowboys, and Nov. 27 against the Green Bay Packers.

Schedules could change thanks to the NFL’s flex rules, allowing better games to be moved into prime time beginning in Week 5. As is the case every year, there is no game scheduled for Week 18 because the league will wait to make sure it has an impact on the playoffs.