It’s been over 24 hours since Bills fans saw another tough loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the playoffs. Four of the last five postseasons have ended with the Chiefs celebrating a hard fought win and the Bills walking off the field in disappointment.
The Bills weren’t expected to go as far as they did. Almost no one gave them a chance to even win the AFC East. They did that easily in Week 13 before even playing the New England Patriots once.
Buffalo finished the regular season at 13-4, with losses to the Ravens, Texans, Rams and Patriots (but in a meaningless Week 18 game). Throughout those losses, we saw some weaknesses where Buffalo was exposed. The Bills have obvious weaknesses and it just cost them a shot at the Super Bowl. If the Bills want to run it back next year, they have to make some crucial changes.
3 big changes Bills must make to avoid another playoff disaster in 2025
Bring in solid depth for secondary
Right from the start in training camp and preseason, the secondary for the Bills dealt with injuries to the point where they needed to bring in help with guys like Kareem Jackson. Cole Bishop suffered an injury and Mike Edwards barely played any snaps before being released by the Bills.
In addition, we saw that when Rasul Douglas and/or Christian Benford weren’t on the field, opposing quarterbacks had a lot of fun going up against players like Kaiir Elam. Brandon Beane has to form a better secondary that has solid depth. Injuries are going to happen all the time and Buffalo cannot allow lack of solid depth be the reason why their defense suffers.
Fix the run-defense
If there was one area that the Bills heavily struggled in this season, it was their run-defense and it wasn’t even close. In eleven total games (including playoffs), the Bills gave up 120+ yards on the ground including 447 rushing yards against the Baltimore Ravens alone. To be fair though, maybe it’s unrealistic to contain Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry.
Buffalo’s run-defense was so bad at one point that they went out and signed Jordan Phillips and Quinton Jefferson in the same week just to get a rotation in the middle of the defensive line. Rookie DeWayne Carter showed early flashes but then suffered a wrist injury and then didn’t suit up on gameday in the later part of the season.
The most frustrating part about this run-defense is their 4-2-5 scheme because their defensive line did not show that they can force double teams to allow the linebackers to fly in and make the stop at or behind the line of scrimmage. There needs to be a major improvement in what Sean McDermott and Bobby Babich do to fix this horrendous run-defense.
Find a new special teams coordinator
Bills’ special teams coordinator Matthew Smiley finished his third season as the coordinator for Buffalo, and eighth season with the Bills. However, there were a handful of times where Buffalo’s secondary looked completely awful. Whether it was bad coverage on a kickoff or punt, Buffalo’s secondary looked like an achilles heal at times. It might be time to find a new coordinator and fix the third phase of their game.