Veteran football journalist Peter King sees the Bills making the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time in over two decades.
In his yearly prediction piece, King places Buffalo in the postseason, he doesn’t put Buffalo on top of the AFC East in a surprise. Not because the Bills aren’t there, but because that distinction goes to the Miami Dolphins.
King views the AFC playoff picture upfolding like this:
- Baltimore
- Kansas City
- Tennessee
- Miami
- Indianapolis
- Buffalo
- Las Vegas
Buffalo would make the playoffs for third time in four years, once again as a Wild Card hopeful. Interestingly enough, King believes that Miami, on the backs of some combination of Ryan Fitzpatrick and Tua Tagovailoa, to be the team to be in the AFC East. It would be quite a jump for the Dolphins, as Miami would jump from worst to first in the division.
As for the Bills, King could only question the offense.
Buffalo will be good enough on defense, but Josh Allen worries me. The Bills were held under 20 points in their last five games of 2019. Is the addition of Stefon Diggs enough to get them off the offensive schneid?
King also highlighted his picks for individual awards. To the chagrin of Bills fans, none of Buffalo’s players were mentioned as a top-four candidate to win any major awards.
There are many pieces to dissect these predictions. Is Miami the real deal? Could they jump the Bills and Patriots after the Dolphins finished 5-11 last year? Even so, the team will probably move on to Tagovailoa by the mid-season point. Is that enough to justify such a quantum jump in the rankings?
Plus, the lack of Bills mentioned in the individual awards section is intriguing. No one is expecting Buffalo to be an offensive juggernaut. However, one would think the defense would get a glance from King. Tre’Davious White is coming off an All-Pro season, and he’s inked a major deal to be the shutdown corner for the Bills for at least five more years.
At the management spot, head Sean McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane should be in line for some accolades if the Bills can make the jump deep into the playoffs this year.
Let the preseason hype continue.
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