Time to circle the wagons
When and Where: Week 17 in Orchard Park
Last season: Lost to the Chiefs in the playoffs. Again. The Bills have won four straight regular season games against the Chiefs, and have lost four straight playoff games against the Chiefs.
Added: Joey Bosa, Larry Ogunjobi, Tra’Davious White, Elijah Moore, Josh Palmer
Lost: Mack Hollins, Rasul Douglas, Amari Cooper, Von Miller
Players added or lost in order of snaps played last season.
Top draft picks: Maxwell Hairston, TJ Sanders, Landon Jackson
Biggest question facing this team: How does this team get over the Chiefs hump?
Bringing in old and injured defenders, one of who was on the team from 2017 to 2023, and some warm bodies at WR is not going to move the needle for this team.
This is basically running it back for the Bills. Same head coach, same playcallers, no major roster overhaul. On the one hand, it makes sense to keep together a team that lost to the Chiefs by 3 points last year and lost to the Chiefs by 3 points the year before, and lost to the Chiefs in OT two years before that. The Bills are so close. But on the other hand, we’re on year four of the Bills are just one play away from the Super Bowl. Definition of insanity and all that.
This season should be Super Bowl or bust for Sean McDermott. He is the fourth longest tenured head coach and the three who were hired before him, Andy Reid, John Harbaugh, and Mike Tomlin have all won the Super Bowl.
Putting this game in Week 17 was a really poor choice by the NFL schedulers. The Bills have wrapped up the AFC East before Week 17 three times in the past five seasons; they should do it again this year. The NFC East has been far more competitive, and the Eagles face a potentially brutal schedule, but it shouldn’t be a shock if both these teams are pretty much locked in on their playoff seeding at kickoff. This game could have had a lot more juice earlier in the season, even by just a few weeks.
