The Buffalo Bills have made the playoffs five years in a row. Each time, they failed to make the Super Bowl. In four of those five years, they didn’t even make the AFC Championship Game.
It may simply be time for the Bills to admit that they need to break things up.
Josh Allen is under center. He remains one of the NFL’s most explosive players. He is still just 27 years old. However, time goes by fast, and before you know it, Allen will be 35 and on the downside of his career.
Buffalo has tried to put supporting talent around him, but it hasn’t worked out the last several years. It’s pretty clear the club needs to try something different, and it needs to do it fast while Allen is still in his prime.
What could that entail?
Well, the Bills are well over the salary cap heading into the offseason, so making moves in free agency will be difficult. They will need to shed some money, and they made need to make some tough decisions. Like trading wide receiver Stefon Diggs, for example.
It was a strange year for Diggs, who did not log a 100-yard outing after Oct. 15. He caught just three passes for 21 yards in Buffalo’s Divisional Round loss to the Kansas City Chiefs this past Sunday. It seems obvious that there is an issue somewhere, whether that means Diggs was hurt (he has insisted he is healthy) or that there was some disconnect between Diggs and Allen or the coaching staff.
Whatever the case may be, Diggs may have run his course in Buffalo, and the Bills may need to move him now while he still retains considerable value.
But it doesn’t just stop at Diggs. Buffalo needs to make decisions elsewhere, too.
The Bills need more weapons. They need more playmakers on the defensive side of the ball. They also may need to make some changes to the coaching staff.
Again, it will be an arduous task given Buffalo’s salary cap situation, but in order for the Bills to truly take that next step, they are going to have to get creative.
Trading Diggs is probably the first step. Finding which players are taking up too much salary (ahem…Von Miller) is also something that needs to be evaluated.
Pretty much everything outside of moving Allen is on the table for Buffalo right now. There is a reason why this team keeps losing to the Chiefs in the playoffs, even when Kansas City looks vulnerable.
Something is wrong here, and the Bills have had five years to figure it out. They haven’t done so, so it’s probably time for Buffalo to move in a different direction.
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