Power rankings: Where the Bills land heading into the 2024 NFL season

The Buffalo Bills have owned the AFC East in recent years with four straight division titles. But the team has made just one AFC title game over that span, and three of those postseason runs have been ended by Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Now the team is coming off an offseason that was…let’s go with bumpy. Buffalo’s top two receivers from last year (Gabe Davis and Stefon Diggs) are gone, replaced by the likes of veteran Curtis Samuel and rookie Keon Coleman. After years holding down the back of the Buffalo defense, veteran safeties Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer are also elsewhere. Linebacker Matt Milano is potentially out for the season after tearing his biceps.

While speaking to reporters, Bills head coach Sean McDermott said that while those personnel losses sting, the team feels it has players on the roster willing to step up and fill the void.

“You never replace people like [Diggs], players like that. No two players or people are the same,” McDermott said. “It’s an opportunity for people to take on new roles, to stretch themselves a little bit. To hold people accountable for somebody else. I think a big piece of this is, you don’t just hire leaders or bring in leaders. You’re developing leaders the whole time.”

Any team led by Josh Allen is going to be a tough out. But in a loaded AFC, Davenport wonders if the Bills lost one player too many this offseason.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “The Bills are still obviously a playoff contender and may well still be the class of the AFC East. But the Chiefs added wide receiver talent in the offseason. The Baltimore Ravens added a potential nightmare for opposing defenses in running back Derrick Henry. And the Bills added—not a lot.”

“Frankly, losing the likes of Poyer and Milano on defense could be even bigger hits,” Davenport continued. “Both are longtime leaders on that side of the ball—guys who made sure people are where they are supposed to be and rally the troops when things aren’t going ideally. The gap between the Chiefs and Bills looks to have widened. The gap between the Bills, Dolphins and Jets has narrowed. Neither is good news in Western New York.”