The ESSENTIAL Football Show 2025 Cap Space: -$500,000
2026 Cap Space: $6.4 million
2027 Cap Space: $65.4 million
2026 Draft Picks: Own Picks, Rounds 1-5, NYJ Rd 7, DAL Rd 7
In my writeup of the Detroit Lions, I mentioned they were an example of a team where, just because they haven’t gotten it done, it doesn’t mean they can’t.
The Baltimore Ravens fit that designation, and so do the Buffalo Bills. General manager Brandon Beane and head coach Sean McDermott have continued to find interesting ways to build this team around Josh Allen, who, like Lamar Jackson, just continues to add layers of refinement to a game that was once based entirely on his superhero-type physical attributes.
It’s different than recent iterations of the Chiefs, because the Bills have weaponized the offensive tackles on their line rather than the interior trio, but Buffalo’s tackle tandem of Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown is about as much fun to watch as any pairing in the game, particularly given the creative ways the Bills get both players on the move.
The offense has a deep cast of weapons, and while they may lack a bona fide number one receiver, the variety was more than enough to keep the ball moving with Allen at quarterback last year. This year’s build will add to the defense, with a first-round cornerback Maxwell Hairston, second-round defensive tackle T.J. Sanders, and veteran edge rusher Joey Bosa joining the crew for the version that Beane and McDermott hope will finally click.
Quarterback
Starter: Josh Allen
Backups: Mitchell Trubisky
Running Back
Starters: James Cook
Backups: Ty Johnson, Ray Davis, Reggie Gilliam (FB)
Wide Receiver
Starters: Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman, Josh Palmer
Backups: Curtis Samuel, Elijah Moore, Kaden Prather (7th Rd), Laviska Shenault
Tight End
Starters: Dawson Knox, Dalton Kincaid
Backups: Jackson Hawes (5th Rd), Zach Davidson
Offensive Line
Starters: Dion Dawkins, David Edwards, Connor McGovern, O’Cyrus Torrence, Spencer Brown
Backups: Tylan Grable, Alec Anderson, Sedrick Van Pran-Granger, Kendrick Green, Ryan Van Demark, Chase Lundt (6th Rd)
Offense Overview
There’s no shortage of NFL teams who veered hard into the physicality of the run game over the past couple years, but as far as “bully ball” goes, it’s hard to argue many teams other than Philadelphia are better equipped to manhandle the opponent.
It starts up front, where Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown headline a line full of brawlers. The smallest player is left guard David Edwards, who checks in at 6’6, 310, while Connor McGovern is one of the league’s bigger centers at 6’5, 315, and right guard O’Cyrus Torrence tips the scales at nearly 350 pounds. The group moves well enough despite that - both Dawkins and Brown can be used as pullers from the tackle position, and the Bills do a great job of tailoring their run game to that unique strength - and they also pass protect well in the dropback game.
The Bills complement their size on the line with a trio of backs on the smaller side, but while Ray Davis (5’8, 220) is the biggest of the bunch, he and lead back James Cook run with some physicality despite their lack of size, and Cook’s ability to break off long runs is a perfect complement to the physicality Josh Allen brings as a runner. Ty Johnson, who posted over five yards per carry and adds a pass-catching element to the room, rounds out the group.
Buffalo’s pass catchers don’t jump off the page, as there isn’t an elite player in the bunch, but the Bills do have depth, with six total receivers and tight ends who should be expected to add to the pass game this season. Slot receiver Khalil Shakir leads the way as Allen’s most reliable target, Keon Coleman will look to develop as a big, body-out target in his second season, Josh Palmer brings some level of route-running savvy on the outside, and Curtis Samuel is capable of adding a spark in a gadget role, while the tight end pairing features a traditional, in-line tight end in Dawson Knox and an off-ball, moveable piece in Dalton Kincaid, who functions as an oversized slot receiver. There’s also the possibility that Elijah Moore, who had some positive moments in Cleveland last season, works his way into the rotation, even if there is some overlap between Moore and Shakir; he hasn’t been in the best situations, and didn’t get a big deal on the open market, but Moore has managed to rack up over 2,000 receiving yards in his four NFL seasons, so he’s certainly not a throwaway.
As for the guy who makes it all go, Josh Allen is coming off his first MVP, which tells the story pretty well. There’s other quarterbacks right there in the discussion with him, but it’s hard to ask for more than what Allen brings to the table, other than the elusive postseason success.
Defensive Tackle
Starters: Ed Oliver, DaQuan Jones
Backups: T.J. Sanders (Rd 2), Larry Ogunjobi, DeWayne Carter (2024 3rd Rd), Deone Walker (4th Rd)
Edge
Starters: Greg Rousseau, A.J. Epenesa
Backups: Joey Bosa, Michael Hoecht, Landon Jackson (3rd Rd)
Linebackers
Starters: Terrel Bernard, Matt Milano
Backups: Dorian Williams, Baylon Spector
Safety
Starters: Taylor Rapp, Damar Hamlin
Backups: Cole Bishop, Cam Lewis, Jordan Hancock (5th Rd), Darrick Forrest
Slot
Starter: Taron Johnson
Backups: Brandon Codrington
Outside CB
Starters: Christian Benford, Maxwell Hairston (1st Rd)
Backups: Ja’Marcus Ingram, Tre’Davious White, Dane Jackson, Dorian Strong (6th Rd)
Defense Overview
It’s a bit of a distant memory, but the Bills defense was once the identity of this team under Coach McDermott, and a year after they moved on from many of the core players from that unit, Buffalo has committed the type of resources needed to fully turn the page and start a new era.
Edge rusher Joey Bosa and 1st round cornerback Maxwell Hairston are the biggest names, but the Bills took a volume approach in addition to using their most valuable assets; on top of Bosa and Hairston, the Bills added defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi and edge rusher Michael Hoecht in free agency, then drafted defensive tackles T.J. Sanders (2nd Rd) and Deone Walker (4th Rd), edge rusher Landon Jackson (3rd Rd), safety Jordan Hancock (5th Rd) and cornerback Dorian Strong (6th Rd). It’s unlikely that all of those players will work out, but they don’t have to; if three of the six rookies make significant contributions in Year One, and two of the three free agent additions stay healthy, you’d expect the Bills to be able to push the action a bit more than their talent allowed for in 2024.
There’s already a decent core of players in place for the Bills; Greg Rousseau has yet to take the step to elite, but he certainly qualifies as an impact player, Ed Oliver continues to bring pass rush juice on the interior, Taron Johnson is a dawg in the slot, and Christian Benford has developed into a quality cover corner on the outside. It would go a long way if Matt Milano can recapture his pre-injury form, as the Bills are just solid up the middle of the defense otherwise, but if some of the investments around them hit, then the pairing of Milano and Terrel Bernard and the safety duo of Taylor Rapp and Damar Hamlin should be solid enough not to undermine the unit’s overall integrity. The other possibility is that Cole Bishop, a 2024 second-round pick, seizes one of the starting safety jobs, but Bishop struck me as a perfectly ordinary prospect last season, and doesn’t strike me as an obvious candidate to break out.
Adding six draft picks and a free-agent class headlined by the injury-prone Joey Bosa is an inherently uncertain process, but that’s the NFL, and a big positive for this unit as a whole is that the new players are being added into a lot of structure, both from a culture perspective and a locker room/unit makeup perspective. Nobody is being asked to put the world on their shoulders - even their first-round pick is being asked to slot in as their second cornerback - so while there aren’t any easy positions in the NFL, the plan doesn’t rely on putting unreasonable expectations on any one player to do an especially hard job. If the Bills get a decent dice role on this set of moves, it should set them up with a much more complete defense, and if the cards come up spades, they could wind up with the most complete roster in the league.
Overall Outlook
Given that Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs continue to find a way past the rest of the AFC field, it’s natural to ask what else the Bills, or Ravens, should have done to be better.
This answer doesn’t make for great talk show fodder, but the reality is that I don’t know if there really is anything they “needed” to do, outside of catching a better break. There is no way to make an NFL team invincible, and while the idea of adding a blue-chip player can seem like the cure-all in the moment, that’s only going to be true if you get that player at the right price.
We’ll see if this is the year for Josh Allen and the Bills, but in terms of process, it’s hard to come up with a lot of arguments against how Buffalo is doing things. It does appear unlikely that this is suddenly going to turn into a Harlem Globetrotters vs. Washington Generals scenario (for Buffalo or anyone else), and that’s going to have some significant portion of fan bases everywhere upset, but if I’ve got Josh Allen at quarterback, I just want to make sure I’ve got a seat at the table every year for the next five years, and I’ll trust the cards fall my way at some point.