We're at the halfway-ish point of the season and the Buffalo Bills currently sit in second place in the division at 5 - 3, just behind the Miami Dolphins. To say it's been a rough start, would be accurate; however, despite the early season injuries and struggles, this team still has all their 2023 season goals in front of them.
Buffalo is about to hit the toughest part of their schedule with the Cincinnati Bengals next up on Sunday Night Football. After that game, which will be a highly emotional game, followed by games against the Denver Broncos and New York Jets. Both of those games will be at home and the Bills have to get those wins against very beatable teams. After Week 11, the schedule includes the Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs, and Dallas Cowboys.
They close out the season with games against the Los Angeles Chargers, New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins. Those last two will likely be huge for the AFC East race for the division championship too. The second half of the season will be very interesting and promises to be a gut-wrenching weekly battle, that will probably come down to the final play of the game more often than not. I'm not too sure my heart will be able to withstand it on a week-to-week basis, but I will be here for all of it.
There are some bright spots from the first half of the year but one glaring concern. The injuries have been huge but let's get into my six takeaways from the first half of the Buffalo Bills 2023 season.
Injuries derailed what was a championship-caliber defense
When the season began, there were a lot of expectations surrounding the Buffalo Bills defense. With the addition of Leonard Floyd, another year of development from Gregory Rousseau, and the expected return of Von Miller, the sky seemed the limit. Add to that what many hoped was a fully healthy and confident Tre'Davious White too.
After an impressive start for the defense, by Week Four, the team lost Tre'Davious White for the season and likely DaQuan Jones and Matt Milano for the year too. The team has not confirmed that Jones and Milano are out for the remainder of the season yet, but it doesn't look good. These three players are arguably the best players at each level of the defense, and it's been obvious on game days. This defense is not the same without them.
The offense may have found themselves just in time
Josh Allen had maybe his worst game of his career against the New York Jets on the opening weekend of the season, but the team bounced back big time over the following three games. Scoring a total of 123 points and winning all three by 28+, tying an NFL record in the Super Bowl era. Things changed when the team traveled overseas to London and have struggled offensively ever since.
The offense got back to some semblance of normalcy last week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; however, despite scoring 24 against a solid Bucs defense, there were moments where the offense struggled to finish drives. The Bills left a lot of points on the field that day, but they showed something that could be huge going forward.
The Bills offense suddenly found some new weapons they could utilize, as well as a possible change of offensive style. Khalil Shakir and Dalton Kincaid combined for 11 receptions, 157 yards, and a touchdown. If the Bills will continue to work these two into the game plan and utilize the no-huddle attack, this offense could begin to get on a roll again and carry the Bills to the playoffs.
Dalton Kincaid will be a stud in the NFL
It's an unfortunate circumstance for Dawson Know but Dalton Kincaid has taken advantage of the opportunity in front of him. In the last two weeks, he's recorded 13 receptions, 140 yards, and a touchdown. He's been targeted 33 times this season and has 30 receptions. There is no one in the NFL with a better catch rate than Kincaid.
With Knox out for the next few games, at a minimum, Kincaid may make it very difficult to go back to Knox as the TE1. I wrote just a week ago that the Bills offense needs to go through Stefon Diggs and Dalton Kincaid. If the Bills stick to this plan even when Knox returns, Kincaid will set some Bills all-time records for tight ends and will be a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses now and for years to come.
Khalil Shakir is set up for a big second half this season
It took Khalil Shakir a little while to get things rolling in his career but he made a big splash last week against the Bucs, with a career day. He recorded six receptions on six targets and 92 yards. His snap count has increased every week since the opening game and culminated with a snap share well over 60%. If the Bills stick with him as the primary slot, he'll continue to be a solid weapon for Josh Allen and will help build that chemistry and trust between the two of them.
In the last two games, Khalil was targeted ten times and caught all six. For an offensive unit that has struggled with drops in the past year and a half, he's become a very reliable target. He's already received more targets, more receptions, and more yards this season than he had in his rookie year. The key to him getting on the field this season was his dramatic improvement in run blocking and now Allen is starting to find him in the passing game too.
The Buffalo Bills drafted a gem of a guard in O'Cyrus Torrence
A lot of fans like to get on Brandon Beane for what they believe, has been poor drafting. I'm not one of those and I'll be diving more into Beane's draft history but for now, fans can't say too much about O'Cyrus Torrence being a bad pick. Beane hit a home run with this young man, and he will become a Pro Bowl offensive guard in the NFL.
Torrence did finally give up his first sack of the year last week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but on the season he's allowed only one quarterback hit and 14 pressures in eight games. The one area he will need to clean up a bit is with penalties. He's committed four penalties this season, which is the eighth most in the NFL; however, according to Pro Football Focus, he's played more snaps than anyone with 534.
Bills have three players on pace for double-digit sacks
We just finished talking about the defense being ravished by injuries and no longer a championship-caliber defense but that's not to say they aren't doing some good things on that side of the ball. Buffalo is second in the league in sacks with 28 on the year and has three players that are on pace to reach double-digit sacks.
Here is a little trivia for you, when was the last time the Buffalo Bills had a player with ten or more sacks in a season and who was it? Okay, I'll end the suspense. The last time this occurred was in 2016 with 12.5 sacks from a fan-favorite Lorenzo Alexander. It's been a long time since the Bills had anyone record double-digit sacks and now they have three guys on pace for it. Those are Leonard Floyd (6.5), Ed Oliver (5) and A.J. Epenesa (5).