Friday, November 8, 2024

Bills named among top ‘first-time Super Bowl candidates’ by NFL.com

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The NFL has 12 teams that have never won a Super Bowl.

The Buffalo Bills have come close… but no cigar. The team with four-straight Super Bowl losses is still waiting for their next shot and NFL.com thinks Buffalo has a realistic shot at getting there in 2024.

The league’s outlet ranked these 12 teams in order of most likely to least likely to win their first title next season. The Bills landed at the No. 3 overall spot.

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The Bills endured some major bloodletting this offseason, yet they remain contenders because of Josh Allen. It’s as simple as that. Now, are they merely playoff contenders, or are we somehow entering an era where Allen can lift a less-talented Bills roster to unseen heights?

This was a borderline top-10 team for most of last season, alternately hot and cold, and it’s hard to make a case Buffalo has more talent after moving on from WRs Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis, center Mitch Morse, a slew of defensive linemen and four key members of the secondary this offseason. Sure, the Bills get several capable players back from injury and they added some potentially underrated pieces via the draft (S Cole Bishop) and free agency (WR Curtis Samuel), but this thing might not be instant coffee.

For one, the AFC remains loaded, and the division suddenly is up for grabs. The Dolphins should remain competitive, and the Jets figure to be far more so, assuming Aaron Rodgers is upright. Four of the Bills’ first six games are on the road, they have two West Coast trips, as well as some tough games right around their Week 12 bye. This is no easy slate.

But Allen gives them a shot. Has he really been stripped of all his armament? If you look closer at last season, when Diggs’ production started waning, the Bills played some of their best ball and got back in the playoff race. Davis was always a wild card: hot or cold, no in between. With James Cook, two good tight ends, Samuel, rookie Keon Coleman, Khalil Shakir and others, there should be plenty of feedable mouths — and not as many yapping about getting the ball every play.

It won’t be easy, although with the Bills, it seldom is. Write off their title chances this year at your own peril.

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