Buffalo Rumblings
Do you even want to Billieve anymore?
I keep going back to the 2023 season as my crutch to help keep the belief alive. The similarities between the current Buffalo Bills team and that Bills team are there. The 2025 Bills have lost four of seven after starting 4-0. The 2023 Bills lost five of eight between Weeks 5 and 12. The offense just didn’t look right. Receivers could not get separation, the play calling was vanilla and predictable, and Josh Allen was forcing plays, and quite frankly did not look like Josh Allen. We longed for the days of 13 seconds, the perfect game, and Josh Allen averaging more than 250 passing yards and three touchdowns per game.
The team’s answer in 2023 was to fire offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey midseason and hand the offense over to quarterback coach Joe Brady. Weeks 13 through 18, they went 5-0 and won the AFC East with an 11-6 record. It was a reminder that late-season momentum can flip an entire story.
Now do I believe the Bills will win the AFC East this year, while sitting two full games behind the Patriots and with them holding the tiebreaker? No, I do not — and that might not be a bad thing.
Yes, the Bills play the Patriots again in December, Week 15 to be exact. But even if the two teams end the season with identical records and split their head-to-head matchups, right now Buffalo still has one more divisional loss than New England. That means the Bills would need the Patriots to lose two more games, with at least one of those losses coming to the New York Jets or Miami Dolphins, plus Buffalo would have to win out. The Patriots’ remaining schedule includes the New York Giants, Baltimore Ravens, Bills, Jets, and Dolphins. It is possible, but it’s far from likely.
The Bills also still have a path to the AFC’s one seed, but it would take a collection of miracles and a perfect 6-0 finish. The path of least resistance is clear. Get healthy. Win four of the last six. Secure a wild card berth as the five, six, or seven seed. Then enter the postseason with as little pressure and as much momentum as possible.
Because once you get in, anything can happen, and that’s the real foundation of believing. It’s not September wins, not division banners, not preseason hype, but a team that finds itself at the right time.
Maybe the question isn’t whether we want to Billieve. Maybe the question is whether this is the year believing requires a different definition.
And honestly, maybe that’s the path this season’s Bills need. Every time Buffalo has surged late in the season under head coach Sean McDermott, it’s come from a place of being backed into a corner. Pressure seems to sharpen this team more than comfort ever has. But a wild-card run forces a team to play its best ball in January instead of peaking too...
