This has been a strange season for the Buffalo Bills, to say the least. Not only are they 6-3 and not leading their division but the New England Patriots are the ones at the top of the AFC East sitting with an 8-2 record and a win over the Bills.
While Bills fans have seen the team stumble in the first half only to rebound in the second half of the season before (2023, for example), fans would probably be lying to themselves if they said that this time around didn't feel different. The Patriots look like a good team that can win the division, especially with the easy schedule they have ahead of them.
Ali Bhanpari of NFL.com predicted every AFC team's remaining games and has some bad news for Bills fans. While Bhanpari still has the Bills making it into the postseason, he has them doing so as a wild card team, getting into the playoffs as the five-seed.
To make matters worse, the Bills finish the season strong in Bhanpari's predictions, winning seven of their final eight games. He has them finishing with a 13-4 record, the same record that he has Kansas City and New England finishing with but due to tiebreaker scenarios, the Chiefs get the one-seed and the Patriots get the two-seed.
Bills predicted to finish season strong but still not win AFC East
Bhanpari's playoff predictions were the Chiefs, Patriots, Ravens, and Colts as the division winners (and seeded in that order), and then the Bills, Broncos, and Chargers representing as the wild card teams. This scenario would mean that Buffalo would be traveling to Indianapolis for the wild card round, which, right now, looks daunting but if the Colts fall off to the level that Bhanpari predicts, that could be a winnable game.
It would be quite unfortunate for the Bills not to win the division and to have to play as a wild card team for the first time since the 2019 season but unfortunately, that's becoming a quite real timeline we could be living in. The Patriots have some easier games on their schedule while Buffalo still has to face the Buccaneers, Texans, Patriots, and Eagles and also have the Bengals and Steelers on their schedule too. Those two teams are hit-and-miss so those games could honestly go either way, especially if Joe Burrow returns for the Bengals by this matchup.
The hope is that the Bills can get through the rest of the season without a loss and the Patriots can slip up a time or two down the road. If so, Buffalo can win its sixth straight division title and get to play at least one playoff game at home. If not, their road to the Super Bowl is only going to get more difficult.