WATCH: How Bills' franchise leaders in touchdowns have changed over the years

A social media user recently posted a fun graph that showcases how the Buffalo Bills' franchise leaders in touchdowns have changed over the years.

Nov 22, 1998; Indianapolis, IN, USA; FILE PHOTO; Buffalo Bills running back Thurman Thomas (34) carries the ball against the Indianapolis Colts at the RCA Dome. Mandatory Credit: Tony Tomsic-USA TODAY NETWORK / Tony Tomsic-USA TODAY Sports

The dead period of the NFL offseason is not only an apt time to look forward to the season ahead, but also to look back at the decades of history and memories that made us fall in love with the game of football in the first place. 

Boasting one of the more passionate fanbases in the league, the Buffalo Bills certainly have a history worth reflecting positively upon. While the team has (unfortunately) never won a Super Bowl, it did play for the Lombardi Trophy in four consecutive seasons throughout the early 1990s. And Buffalo’s proverbial mantel is not without trophies—a founding member of the long-defunct American Football League, the Bills won back-to-back AFL Championships in 1964 and 1965.

Some of the most iconic players in the history of professional football have worn the ‘charging Buffalo’ helmet; the team has 12 representatives in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, among them the NFL’s all-time sack leader in Bruce Smith, a former NFL MVP in Thurman Thomas, and one of the league’s most revered all-time general managers in Bill Polian.

The Bills, though certainly not without their prolonged periods of struggle, have a history worthy of pride; Greg Harvey (@BetweenTheNums on X) recently encapsulated their 60+ years of history in a fun visual chart, posting a graph of how the franchise’s all-time leaders in touchdowns have changed on a year-to-year basis.

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You can watch the short clip here:

Next up in the All-Time TD graphic series are the @BuffaloBills, who joined the NFL in 1970 after playing in the AFL for ten seasons 🦬

Check out their leading touchdown scorers in franchise history, including @Andre_Reed83 & @thurmanthomas.

Data via OptaSTATS 📈 pic.twitter.com/QvsvqPrzZJ

— Greg Harvey (@BetweenTheNums) May 21, 2024

Perhaps the most fascinating period on the chart is the early 1990s when Thomas and Andre Reed essentially re-write the team’s record books. It’s also quite funny to watch Josh Allen soar up the graph in recent years—he’ll likely be topping it before long.

It’s a bit disheartening (and retroactively humorous) to see no significant changes occur throughout the majority of the 2000s, but to be fair, nothing of note was occurring on the field—the Bills did not qualify for the postseason in the first 17 years of the century.

It will be fun to look back on this chart in a few years—potentially when Allen ultimately calls it quits and players like James Cook, Dalton Kincaid, and Keon Coleman have constructed more fruitful professional careers—to see how much has changed. Until then, Buffalo fans have the team’s… generally positive history to reflect back on.