Another season has come and gone and the Buffalo Bills quest for their first Super Bowl trophy continues. This may sound like a broken record, but this team isn’t that far from accomplishing the ultimate prize.
They just needed to make one or two more plays against the Kansas City Chiefs and instead, they maybe would be talking about how they defeated the Baltimore Ravens on the road.
Here are the six priorities the Buffalo Bills should address over the offseason to improve the team’s chances of winning the big game.
1. Add more Receivers/Mismatches to help Josh Allen
Brandon Beane did not play games when it came to improving the offensive side of the ball. He said right from the start that the Buffalo Bills should prioritize adding more speed to the receiver corps to continue to create mismatches for opposing defenses.
Up until the Buffalo Bills drafted (TE) Dalton Kincaid in this past year’s draft, they relied on Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis making the big plays on offense.
This year, the Buffalo Bills had a tight end with Rob Gronkowski and Travis Kelce skillsets, to confuse the defense and throw to, if either Diggs or Davis were struggling.
2. What to do with Stefon Diggs?
I think the Buffalo Bills should either get rid of his contract, but that would mean paying a hefty cap penalty, or restructure his contract to free up cap space.
Diggs is a superstar receiver and it would be very hard to replace his production with another plug-in-play type of receiver. Diggs’ cap hit right now is $27.8 million.
That’s why in either free agency or with the 28th pick in the NFL draft, the Bills should add more speedy receivers to help Diggs create mismatches in opposing defenses.
I think the Bills should draft LSU (WR), Brian Thomas Jr. at 28. He’s a big target at 6’4″, 205 lbs. and his forty time was a 4.47 just under Diggs’ time of 4.46 back in 2015. He can run NFL routes, has good hands, and has that old-school 90 yards after the catch.
3. Future of Jordan Poyer/Micha Hyde?
This is one of the biggest questions for the Buffalo Bills heading into the 2024 offseason. It’s obvious to me that Poyer and Hyde have been the best safety tandem in the NFL, but also have been the best thing to the city of Buffalo as well.
Since they both arrived as free agents in 2017, both Poyer and Hyde have produced extraordinary moments on the field. They have also helped change the culture in Buffalo that has seen a team go from a work in progress to winning four straight AFC East titles.
At 33 years old, Hyde may be getting up there in age, but I think the energic safety is still spry and aggressive enough to lead the Buffalo Bills.
Even though he has the right to test the free agent market, I would resign him to a one-year deal for next year and then eventually have him retire a Buffalo Bill.
As for Poyer, he is entering the last year of his contract and just like his best friend Hyde, I would bring him back for another year and have him stay to also retire as a Buffalo Bill.
4. Potentially Restructuring Second Contracts
As previously mentioned, Diggs’ cap hit is $27.8 million, so I would suggest the possibility of restructuring his contract to chew off some of that big money. I would also recommend potentially restructuring Von Miller’s contract as well.
**Von Miller
Miller was originally signed by the Buffalo Bills to a whopping six-year, $120 million contract back in March 2022 with the hopes of having a pro-bowl caliber d-lineman helping the Bills win a Superbowl while in theory finishing all six years as a Buffalo Bill.
Unfortunately, Miller suffered a season-ending ACL tear against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving Day, 2022. To his dismay, he didn’t return as healthy as he would have liked this year.
He did show flashes of adequate play during the 2023 AFC Divisional Playoffs against the Kansas City Chiefs and wants to come back fully healthy. Miller’s current cap hit is $23.79 million.
**Tre’Davious White
Last but certainly not least, don’t forget about Pro Bowl cornerback, Tre’Davious White. White’s cap hit is roughly $16.4 million.
He was playing at an all-pro level until he suffered a season-ending torn Achilles injury back in week 4 against the Miami Dolphins.
Even with this injury, I’m hearing that his rehab is going well, and if things keep progressing, he should be back ready to go for 2024.
I would restructure his contract to cut some of his money and resign Rasul Douglas. If that happens, the Buffalo Bills could form one of the best cornerback pairings in the league next season.
5. Should He Stay or Should He Go?
To start, I was very upset when Tyler Bass missed that field goal that would have tied the game. What I was even more upset about, was that some of the smaller portions of Bills Mafia took their anger too far by sending him death threats and just hateful things to the man.
Yes, he will be another kicker in Buffalo Bills history to miss a crucial kick wide right, but Bass wasn’t the reason they lost. Even Josh Allen agreed by going over to the upset kicker heading into the tunnel to the locker room and comforting him knowing that they lost as a team.
Personally, I would still retain Bass. Before that, he was automatic on field goals and extra points: (24 of 29 for field goals, and 49 of 50 on extra points). I just think it’s crazy that some of these close playoff games were lost because it came down to the kicker.
Another reason why Bass should stay is because good kickers are hard to come by nowadays. My mother and grandfather used to always say, “that back in their days, you could get off the couch, grab a cold refreshment, or go to the bathroom and by the time you were done, the field goal was good.”
Nowadays, kickers are soccer-style kickers. This is great for long-distance field goals, but it’s also the reason why even the chip shot field goals aren’t automatic anymore. I guess times have really changed.
6. Come Back to Play KC in the Divisional Round
The Buffalo Bills must work on all of the above aspects of the game to improve and come back to play the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional Round of the Playoffs in 2024 so we can see:
Man of the people #JasonKelce ? pic.twitter.com/d28WRUfP2m
— Maryna Oleksina (@maryna_oleksina) January 21, 2024
Jason Kelce showing up to party with our Tailgating Bill’s fans!
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