Since the 2020 season, the Buffalo Bills had taken over the AFC East once Tom Brady left the division for Tampa Bay. When Brady left, the Bills had a clear path of not just winning the AFC East for the first time since 1995, but also taking it for quite some time. For the past five seasons, they have ruled the division both by a mile and by a string.
However, that won’t be the case this season. With them losing to the Eagles yesterday, the New England Patriots are back on top of the division and now Buffalo will be a wild card team going into the playoffs.
This will be the first season since 2019-2020 of the Bills going on the road in the playoffs in the first round. The last time they were a wild card round, they lost to the Houston Texans in overtime, 22-19, when J.J. Watt was still playing. It’s been that long since Buffalo was a road playoff team right from the start.
Now obviously, this stinging loss to the Eagles definitely hurts Buffalo ultimately because now they have no shot at winning the division. However, there is a bit of insult to injury that was done to them.
Bills' reign of AFC East wasn't as impressive as we all thought
According to AJ Feldman, the Bills have become the first team in NFL history to win 5+ division titles and not make the Super Bowl during that time. That is just flat out embarrassing considering who the Bills have at quarterback.
The #Bills streak of AFC East titles has ended at five.
— AJ Feldman (@AJFeldmanTV) December 29, 2025
They are the first team in NFL history to win 5+ straight division titles and not make the Super Bowl during their reign. #BillsMafia
That is just highly unacceptable and once again, the Bills find themselves on the wrong side of history. Throughout their playoff run, they have lost four out of five matchups to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs (both in Kansas City and Buffalo), and have been blown out by Joe Burrow and the Bengals at home.
They made it to two AFC championship games, but fell short in both of them. They had also lost three consecutive divisional playoff games.
Bills fans are now hit with the reality that they are the second best team in the AFC East. Maybe this is just a one-year wonder, maybe it’s not. But at this current moment, the Bills are not the best team in their division. The only upper hand that they currently have on the Patriots is that they have more recent playoff experience.
However, the Bills have yet to win a road playoff game under Sean McDermott and now they will be on the road right from the start during the postseason.