Reid and Mahomes Have the Ultimate Respect for Bills
The leaguewide search for the Kansas City Chiefs' biggest rival team has been going on for a few years now and in recent seasons, the squad that's come closest to wearing that crown was the Buffalo Bills.
Back in early 2021, Kansas City got the best of Buffalo in the AFC Championship Game behind two touchdowns from tight end Travis Kelce and 38 total points in the contest. Later that calendar year, however, the Bills got regular-season revenge in the form of a Week 5 blowout win. In that 38-20 throttling on GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, Bills quarterback Josh Allen threw for 315 yards and three touchdowns. That set the tone for a Divisional Round playoff matchup in January of this year, a game in which Allen and his team battled all outing long but ultimately fell to Kansas City in the famous "13-second" game.
Heading into this season, coming off a stellar offseason, Buffalo was a popular pick to not only come out of the AFC, but also win the Super Bowl. That's still the case, as Sean McDermott's group is currently the odds-on favorite to hoist the Lombardi Trophy in February. Kansas City is waiting in the weeds behind them, and that's also reflected in this Sunday's set of odds (Buffalo is favored). The Bills are getting the NFL's (and Vegas') ultimate respect thus far in the 2022 campaign and this week, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid praised McDermott for what he's done for the franchise.
“Yeah, he’s done a great job, phenomenal job. That’s a unique place to coach in that it’s a smaller town and very passionate, you know? I think they respect the game up there and understand the game, and I think they really appreciate what Sean has brought to them.”
Buffalo is viewed by many as the class of the NFL, and for good reason. In Football Outsiders' DVOA, the club ranks first among all 32 NFL teams. The gap between the Bills and the Eagles (second place) is significant. Offensively, the Bills rank seventh. Defensively, they're second.
They also average more yards per game than any NFL team on offense and are tied for the lowest points per game allowed on defense. Defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier has his unit sitting pretty at sixth in the league in sacks and eighth in team pass rush win rate. 2021 first-round pick Gregory Rousseau has four sacks in five games and grades highly when compared to other pass-rushers in the league, and 33-year-old Von Miller is playing like he's 25. Buffalo's defense is very legit, even with some injuries still taking their toll, and Reid isn't overlooking it one bit.
“I think if you look at all their positions, they’re solid in – you know they’re good players – in all the positions," Reid said. "You don’t see a lot of weaknesses there. They’re well-coached, they understand the scheme. I mean, they’ve been doing it now for a while and they’ve got it. And so that’s all part of it and Leslie is a phenomenal football coach, so he’s got them playing hard, aggressive, and understanding the scheme.”
Then, of course, there's the overarching storyline of Patrick Mahomes going up against Josh Allen yet again. While Mahomes has the advantage in the head-to-head series and is also well ahead in terms of career accolades (and has a Super Bowl ring), there's a case to be made for Sunday afternoon being a showdown between the two greatest quarterbacks in the sport. Heading into Week 6, both players rank in the top five among all signal-callers in passing yards, passing touchdowns, passer rating and percentage of throws for first downs. In a league that constantly searches for Mahomes's best contemporary, Allen is the closest to that.
Ironically, Mahomes and Allen are friends. They get along well off the field and have a very clear respect for one another despite the world insisting on pitting them against each other every year, month, week, day and second. The same reverence Reid appears to have for McDermott and his staff is reflected in Mahomes and Allen. Mahomes and the Chiefs clearly understand the importance of Sunday's game and they desperately want a win. If one more thing is for certain, though, it's that Kansas City knows there's another team threatening to officially take their place as the AFC's top dog. The Chiefs aren't falling short in the aforementioned respect category this week.
“Yeah, when you go up against the other great quarterbacks in the league, you always want to win," Mahomes said. "You always want to compete. Josh is a great guy. He’s a great quarterback – physically talented, he can throw, can run, he can really do it all. But he’s a great dude too. And so, obviously, when we’re on the football field, we are competing against each other and we want to beat each other’s teams, but I have a ton of respect for him the player and person that he is.”
