3 Ways the Bills Can Change To Avoid Disaster Again In 2025
Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images
Now that we have had a couple of days to digest the Buffalo Bills’ gut-wrenching loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, it’s time to look forward to making sure it doesn’t happen again. The Bills have gotten so close to a Super Bowl appearance in the past few years, with a bad break or two sending them home early.
With being so close, this isn’t about making the big drastic changes. The Bills only need to make a couple of tweaks to finally get this team over the hump. Let’s take a look at what they can do this offseason to take the next step.
Improve the Secondary
This is nothing new in Buffalo — the Bills tried to do an overhaul of the secondary this season, and it didn’t work out like they hoped. Taron Johnson is back for the Bills, and he’s still the anchor but after him and Christian Benford, there are some major question marks.
Damar Hamlin has become an inspiration for the Bills and had his best career year, starting 14 games. He is a free agent, though, and Buffalo could find an upgrade in free agency. Even though it was a career year for Hamlin, he was ranked 107th out of 170 eligible safeties, according to PFF‘s Overall Grade. His Coverage Grade was even worse, coming in at 125 out of 170. On the other hand, Hamlin is an emotional leader and his presence would be missed greatly by the locker room.
“He’s meant a lot to this team, he’s meant a lot to this city,” quarterback Josh Allen said. “His story is one of the greatest stories of all time. He’s such a special human being and he’s using all of his influence in a positive light. It’s not easy to do what he’s done. I commend him so much as a person, as a player for going out there and continuing to play extremely hard.”
Whatever happens, the Bills must bring in more depth, because that also hurt their chances many times throughout the year. There were injuries for most of the season and when someone Kaiir Elam played, he got cooked. The Bills’ defense might have been 11th in scoring, but they ranked 24th in passing yards against, and a big reason was their depth getting exposed.
Improve Defensive Philosophy
The Bills also need to take a hard look and figure out if their core defensive scheme is actually working. Each week should have a new game plan tailor-made to whoever a team is facing, and it seems like that isn’t always what happens with the Bobby Babich-led defense. At times, it feels like the same game plan is being used for a quarterback like Will Levis and Patrick Mahomes. Against a quarterback who struggles against the blitz, blitz more, if a quarterback finds success against the blitz, blitz less — things like that.
Personnel is going to have to be a factor in their scheme, so things like adding cornerback and safety depth and perhaps finding a run-stuffer at defensive tackle might have to come before anything else. But once Babich gets those pieces in place, he’s going to have to do a better job of using his players differently based on who’s lining up against his defense.
Get Another Wide Receiver
Buffalo made it work with a wide receiver room that was deep with talent, but a bit of a ragtag feel to them in 2024. That’s a great foundation, but they really could stand to find a true No. 1 option. After trading away Stefon Diggs, they tried to fill the void by trading for Amari Cooper during the season, but that didn’t exactly work.
If the Bills go into 2025 with the same pass-catching cast, there is still a chance they could win the Super Bowl, but one more star receiver to move everyone else a spot down the depth chart would be a big boost. If they can bring back Cooper on a team-friendly deal, that might be the boost, but they’re going to have to hope that he simply needs an offseason with the team to shine in Buffalo.
The Bills are a little strapped for cash, as they’re only projected to have a little over $7 million in cap space. That is going to have a big impact on who they could bring in, but there is still talent on the market that makes sense. Tee Higgins is going to be out of the running, for example, but maybe someone like Darius Slayton could be in their price range and would help improve the offense.
If the Bills can make the small changes above, it might just be all they need to get where they need to go.
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