Is the Buffalo Bills Championship window over?

The Buffalo Bills lost to the Cincinnati Bengals in the Divisional round last Sunday; Was this their last chance to win before their window closed?

Is+the+Buffalo+Bills+Championship+window+over%3F

Jonathan Albers, Editor

Quarterback Josh Allen takes the snap, drops back and heaves the ball deep. It’s intercepted by Cam Taylor-Britt. Just like that the Buffalo Bills season that had so much promise comes to an end. All of the people who picked the Bills to win the Superbowl ate their words as the Bills once again failed to win the big game. This begs the question; Is the Buffalo Bills championship window over? I believe it is.

The Bills locked up their franchise quarterback earlier in the off season to a six year, 258 million dollar contract. Now, Josh Allen is amazing don’t get me wrong, but he cant get it done in the playoffs. The Bills have made the playoffs every year since 2019 and have failed to make it past the divisional round 3 out of 4 times. Inconsistency has always been an issue for Allen. His ability to extend plays can benefit the team, but also hurts it because of his turnovers. Allen led the league in turnovers this season with 18. It seems as if he tries to extend every play, leading to close calls and mistakes. Taking care of the football is one of the most important keys to winning, and that is something Allen doesn’t do very well.

Not only does this Bills team not take care of the Football, they are going to lose key pieces to their team in 2023. Safety Jordan Poyer and linebacker Tremaine Edmunds are both free agents now that the Bills season is over. Those are big losses to a Bills Defense that already under-performed this season. The free agents wouldn’t be an issue if they had enough cap to sign these players back. The Bills are at 241 million dollars for their active roster, which is almost 20 million over the NFL salary cap. Not to mention that star edge rusher Von Miller is coming off an ACL tear and is going to be 34 next season. Those are just the defensive problems, now lets look at the offensive problems.

The Bills have some glaring offensive problems. This season, the Bills had to rely on Allen being special. Their offensive line is bad, and will take a lot of pieces to be good. Their running backs don’t bet it done either. Not to mention their Wide receivers. Don’t get me wrong, Stephon Diggs is amazing, but teams are figuring out that they just have to shut down Diggs to stop their production. Also, Gabe Davis isn’t good enough to get it done as a wide receiver #2.

The Bills have a great head coach, great coordinators great front office, and a good quarterback. That wont be enough to get them to the big game though. As the rest of the NFL took a step forward, the Kansas City Chiefs took a step backwards and are still in the AFC championship. The Bills with have to pull of one of the best drafts of all time if they plan to contend in the 2023 season.