NFL analyst says Bills ‘remain as dangerous as they have been’ in 2024 season

NFL.com feels as though the Buffalo Bills are just as competitive in 2024 as they've been in recent seasons.

Kyle Silagyi | Sep 18, 2024

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Few NFL teams in recent memory have found more consistent regular season success than the Buffalo Bills.

The team constructed a combined 58-24 record from 2019–2023, qualifying for the postseason in all five of those seasons as it also picked up four consecutive AFC East titles. Josh Allen cemented himself as one of the league’s top signal callers over the stretch, having a significant hand in dragging the Bills from the depths of national irrelevancy into perennial contention.

Buffalo’s status among the NFL’s elite has long been widely accepted, but it was questioned by large swaths of the media this offseason amid a flurry of personnel changes. The team parted ways with long-time starters and leaders on both sides of the ball, showing the exit door to players like Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer, Tre’Davious White, Mitch Morse, and Stefon Diggs as it attempted to get younger and secure long-term financial flexibility. The team made corresponding additions after the departures but largely neglected to add a marquee name, prompting some national pundits to suggest that the Bills were set to take a—perhaps substantial—step back in the 2024 campaign.

This has not been the case through the first two games of the season, as the Bills—shockingly—are still the Bills. Allen looked stellar as he totaled four touchdowns in Buffalo’s come-from-behind Week 1 win over the Arizona Cardinals, and the general team looked fantastic in their Week 2 dismantling of the Miami Dolphins. The defense has been humming despite missing several key starters, and the early returns of the offense’s recently adopted ‘everyone eats’ approach are promising. To put it bluntly: it looks as though reports of the Bills’ demise were greatly exaggerated.

This sentiment has been echoed in NFL.com’s Week 3 power rankings, as writer Eric Edholm slotted the team in at No. 4. The analyst praised Buffalo’s offensive line in his analysis, particularly applauding fourth-year right tackle Spencer Brown’s efforts in Week 2.

“If there has been an unsung element of the team’s 2-0 start, it’s probably the offensive line,” Edholm wrote. “I feel like the defense got the proper credit for how it played from about the fourth series of Week 1 all the way through Thursday’s statement victory in Miami. But the O-line deserves its flowers, too, as it kept Josh Allen (and his banged-up left hand) clean and opened a few freeways in the run game. Watching the recently paid Spencer Brown stonewall Miami’s Jaelan Phillips in space while Allen hit a 33-yard pass to the 1-yard line was impressive.

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“Through two weeks, almost every team has shown a little sign of weakness. The Bills remain as dangerous as they have been until something dramatically changes.”

Only the Kansas City Chiefs, San Francisco 49ers, and Houston Texans rank above Buffalo on Edholm’s list, and the writer is not unique in ranking the Bills among the NFL’s best teams. Buffalo has steadily climbed most prominent power rankings throughout the initial weeks of the season, this due to pundits around the league realizing that the team is still immensely talented and competitive despite its offseason maneuvers.

Power rankings likely won’t react significantly if the Bills defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars in their Week 3 Monday Night Football meeting, as it’s a game Buffalo is expected to win; that said, Buffalo isn’t looking past Jacksonville, as the team from North Florida has strangely had its number over the past few seasons. An Urban Meyer-led Jaguars team embarrassingly beat the Bills in 2021, and Jacksonville again defeated a jet-lagged Buffalo team in London last season; Allen has a 1-2 career record against the Jaguars, and he’ll look to get to .500 next week.

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