Buffalo Bills: Plenty has changed since their last meeting with Chiefs

The Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs last met in 2017 and while it is not that long ago, plenty has changed for both franchises.

The 2017 season is one that will be memorable for Buffalo Bills fans as it was the first season that Sean McDermott was the head coach but more importantly it was the year their playoff drought came to an end.

However, it is also the last time that these two franchises met. While the Buffalo Bills won that game 16-10 and both teams still have the same head coach, the players on the field are drastically different.

It starts at quarterback as the Buffalo Bills had Tyrod Taylor under center while the Kansas City Chiefs still had Alex Smith as their starter while Patrick Mahomes was in his rookie season.

For the Bills offense, they actually have only one player left on the team that took an offensive snap in this game. That player is left tackle Dion Dawkins, who played every snap at the position but was in only his sixth start of his career. Since then, Dawkins has established himself as the long term answer at the position and even signed a contract extension in the offseason.

It is remarkable to think about the turnover on the offensive side of the ball though as LeSean McCoy was the starting running back while their wide receivers were Zay Jones, Deonte Thompson and Jordan Matthews.

This is vastly different than the trio of Stefon Diggs, John Brown and Cole Beasley which is just another example of the remarkable turnover Brandon Beane has been able to generate with this offense.

The defensive side of the ball doesn’t look as different considering the Bills still have four starters on this side of the ball from the last time these two teams played. It starts with the secondary that is almost completely unchanged with Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer and Tre’Davious White still on the team. They are joined by Jerry Hughes as the other starter from 2017 but also Matt Milano did get some snaps at linebacker in this game but wasn’t starting at this point in his career.

As for the Chiefs, they will have a new quarterback under center but the supporting cast is fairly unchanged with Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce, and Demarcus Robinson all on the Chiefs at this point in 2017.

In 2017, it was a defensive struggle between these two teams as they only combined for 26 points. The Chiefs had a chance to win at the end of the game but an interception by Tre’Davious White was able to close the door on that.

While the Buffalo Bills hope the end result will be the same, which is a win, this game appears to be shaping up to be a shootout between these two offenses.