(Audacy Sports/WGR 550) - The Buffalo Bills have been one of the most impressive teams in the NFL over the past several seasons. Buffalo won its first playoff game of the millennium in the 2020 season, and has remained atop the AFC East since then.
After years of irrelevance, the Bills are relevant again. But have they missed their championship window?
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Andrew Fillipponi of the Audacy Original Podcast “1st & Pod” gave his thoughts on a Bills team that may be descending after failing to make the Super Bowl in any of the past three seasons.
“I would downgrade them a lot. I think that the Bills seem like a stale team to me. They seem, to me, like a team that missed their window to win,” Fillipponi said. “I think they blew it against the Chiefs in those 13 seconds, and then I think they peaked in the first eight games of last year. And that great team that they were in September and early October of last year, when they before last season were the Super Bowl favorites, I don’t think they’re ever getting back to that.”
The Bills won the AFC East in 2020 for the first time since 1995. They advanced all the way to the AFC Championship Game that year, where they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs. The next season saw them lose in Kansas City again after their late 13-second collapse in the AFC Divisional Round.
This past season saw the Bills overcome a lot of adversity in the regular season, including Damar Hamlin's cardiac arrest during a Week 17 matchup with the Bengals, only to fall short again in the AFC Divisional Round, this time to Cincinnati.
“They’re going to say Josh Allen’s elbow – they’re going to make a bigger deal of that probably. Second year with Ken Dorsey as the offensive coordinator. Von Miller comes back,” Fillipponi continued. “I’ve got them as my sixth team in the AFC. I’ve got them barely making the playoffs.”
Buffalo has yet to finish lower than third in the conference since making the playoffs in 2020. The Bills have compiled a 37-12 regular-season record in that span, and have a winning postseason record (4-3) as well.
“I just think [Sean] McDermott has a very solid record and he will get credit for taking a franchise that had gone like 19 years without a playoff win and making them relevant again,” Fillipponi concluded. “But I think they’re a descending team.”
The oddsmakers still give the Bills the third-best chance to win the Super Bowl at +900, and are +500 (behind only Kansas City) to win the AFC.
More from the latest episode of the "1st & Pod" podcast is available in the player below:
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