The Buffalo Bills suffered another disappointing end to their season in January, losing in the AFC Championship Game to the Kansas City Chiefs. The Bills were one win away from their first Super Bowl appearance since 1994 but couldn't get the job done.
What's working in the Bills' favor is that even though they were basically written off a year ago after they lost key players, they still ran roughshod over the rest of the AFC East. Buffalo won its fifth straight division title while the other three teams in the division floundered.
It's become crystal clear that as long as the Bills have Josh Allen, winning the AFC East is to be expected. That being said, it's well past time for this team to buck the trend and win the AFC, something they haven't done in three decades. They came close this past season but what can finally get them past that point so that they're in the Super Bowl instead of watching it from home?
Matt Verderame of Sports Illustrated said in his write-up of one move every team in the AFC East should make in the offseason that the Bills need to "Find a pass-rusher who can win a playoff game".
Bills' to-do list this offseason needs to involve adding a high-profile pass-rusher
This isn't news to Bills fans, as the team is desperate for help in the pass-rushing department. Verderame noted how when the Bills lost the infamous "13-second game" in 2022 that Brandon Beane then swung for the fences and signed Von Miller to a blockbuster deal. He also pointed out how that deal has not gone according to plan for Buffalo.
The big thing to note with Miller and the Bills is that while, yes, he hasn't lived up to expectations in Buffalo, the bigger thing to point to is that he hasn't recorded a single sack for the Bills in the playoffs. That needs to change if Buffalo wants to get over their playoff hump and finally reach a Super Bowl.
So, what can be done about it? Verderame says that, despite the team not having a ton of money to work with, there are solid options out there.
"While the Bills are fairly tight on cap space and options to create more, they have to find the right value. Buffalo could look at someone such as Haason Reddick, who is coming off a disastrous year with the Jets but also has four double-digit sack seasons to his name."
This certainly wouldn't be a bad option for the Bills, as Reddick was a sack machine from 2020 to 2023, notching double-digit sacks in each of those four seasons, including a 16.0 sack campaign in 2022 with the Eagles. He'd be an excellent addition to the Buffalo pass-rush if Beane can get a deal worked out.