It’s the NFL, so anything can happen in Week 18, but certainly, Buffalo Bills fans are expecting a satisfactory end to the 2025 regular season against the New York Jets. After all, the Jets haven’t won since November and haven’t been particularly competitive against teams with winning records.
Of course, the Bills have a playoff spot locked up and don’t have much say in their seeding, regardless of the outcome on Sunday. Sean McDermott assured Bills Mafia the team would play to win, but the fan base is apprehensive about watching Josh Allen and company for four full quarters.
With that in mind, the Bills can’t afford to sleepwalk through Week 18 and come away worse for wear heading into the postseason.
The key focus areas Buffalo Bills can’t overlook before playoff football begins
Getting and staying healthy
With a spot in the playoffs assured, the top priority for the Bills this Sunday is staying healthy. That means resting players who aren’t 100% coming into the game, and making sure everyone else is preserved through the final whistle.
Naturally, it’s the only impossible task in the sport. Josh Allen is banged up, and Jordan Poyer, Jordan Phillips, Terrel Bernard and Dalton Kincaid are all key players who are less than 100% at the close of the season. Buffalo must get through this game without adding to the list or making any of these players’ current ailments worse.
The Bills haven’t publicly committed to resting any starters, and it appears they won’t, at least early on. But they can offer themselves the opportunity to do so with a fast start.
Starting fast, for the first time in a long time
A recurring theme throughout the back-half, and through much of the 2025 season, is the Bills' tendency to start games rather slowly. The Bills have struggled on offense and defense to build any sort of momentum into the locker room at halftime, though they’ve countered that by being the best second-half team in the league.
A fast start against the Jets can provide the Bills with the cushion necessary to sit on a lead and begin to pull out some key players they want to preserve for the playoffs.
If ever there were a team to start fast against, it’s the Jets, who have scored just seven first-half touchdowns all season long, with their defense allowing 31 touchdowns in the first half on the other side.
Closing out Highmark Stadium the right way
At the end of the day, the Bills are closing out 53 years at Highmark Stadium. With the Jets being the final draw, Bills Mafia feels confident that the franchise will close its time in the stadium with a win. That will be a sweet feeling if it comes through, but the Bills can also hand the Jets two embarrassing records alongside a 3-14 finish if they play cleanly.
The Jets’ defense has just four takeaways on the season. If they can’t double that total to surpass the seven the San Francisco 49ers mustered in 2018, they’ll set a new NFL record for fewest takeaways in an NFL season.
All four of those takeaways were fumble recoveries. No team since the merger has gone an entire season without intercepting at least two passes, but the Jets have yet to do so in any capacity.
If the Bills do rest Josh Allen, whether after one play, one drive, or however they go about it, it’ll be on Mitchell Trubisky and the offensive reserves to keep that record in place, and close out Highmark Stadium with a win and two embarrassing records for the rival Jets to carry into the 2026 offseason.
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Clearly, the Bills have a lot to focus on within themselves to build and preserve momentum heading into the postseason. And while the Jets lack firepower in virtually every category, they are trying to play the spoiler to close the season. The Bills can’t give them the satisfaction in the season finale.