NFL Way-Too-Early Power Rankings: Bills Ready for Super Bowl Run?
Reach out to your San Francisco 49ers fan friends and give them your condolences. With five combined playoff losses to the Kansas City Chiefs, the 49ers and Buffalo Bills know all too well what postseason pain feels like.
Yet, the Lombardi Trophy has been hoisted, starting the clock on Kansas City’s potential expiration as champions. The offseason has arrived, and with it comes the Super Bowl aspirations for all 32 teams.
How do the Bills stack up after the 2023 season’s completion?
© Mark Konezny, USA TODAY
In ESPN’s opening 2024 power rankings, Buffalo finds itself ranked fifth. That isn’t surprising, given their final-eight finish and how close it played the eventual champions.
Despite not defaulting to playoff results, the panel ranked each conference championship participant ahead of Buffalo. Falling behind the Baltimore Ravens, Chiefs, 49ers, and Detroit Lions, respectively, the Bills are slated as the third-best team in the conference.
As Alaina Getzenberg noted, this offseason is pivotal for both maintaining their standing toward the top of the conference and potentially taking the next step.
“This offseason will test the Bills’ front office,” Getzenberg wrote. “Restructuring and extending contracts are likely, and finding solid talent to add in free agency will be a major task yet again. … After the Bills got significant contributions from the first two picks of last year’s draft, those sort of impact picks will be needed once again.”
Those rookies – tight end Dalton Kincaid and guard O’Cyrus Torrence – were both points of stability and optimism for Buffalo. They are key young pieces on a roster that is aging … potentially out of its competitive window. How general manager Brandon Beane gets clever with the cap as quarterback Josh Allen’s cap hit blossoms will be paramount to taking down Kansas City.
Of course, the Bills have the one thing keeping hope alive in Western New York. Allen is both the biggest reason why Buffalo ranks so highly and why a Super Bowl is possible, even if 2023 was the best chance the organization will get in this window.
The Bills rank one spot ahead of the rival Miami Dolphins and eight ahead of the Cincinnati Bengals, who are capable of competing for a championship with quarterback Joe Burrow. They’ll have to keep pace with the gauntlet of AFC teams below them as they look up to the AFC teams that proved to be the class of the league.
