They’re as high as third and as low as 10th
The Buffalo Bills are a universal top-10choice among pundits in 2024’s Week 2 NFL power rankings. This isn’t terribly surprising, as the Bills are four-time defending division champs and they won a hard-fought 34-28 victory over the Arizona Cardinals in Week 1. What may be surprising is how low some of the pundits have the Bills ranked.
Buffalo is mostly nestled somewhere between the sixth and eighth spots, but there are a few outliers worth noting. The Bills are as high as the third spot and as low as the 10th spot in the rankings we found early Tuesday morning.
We’ll start with that high ranking, as Pete Prisco at CBS Sports has Buffalo ranked behind only the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers at No. 3 overall. Prisco writes that Bills quarterback Josh Allen “once again showed how valuable he is” by leading the way with four total touchdowns, two passing and two rushing, in the victory. Prisco notes the challenge of preparing for the Miami Dolphins in a short week for a road contest, but he also notes that Allen has “owned” the Dolphins throughout his career.
Next, we’ll go to the lowest ranking, where Yahoo! Sports columnist Barry Werner has the Bills ranked No. 10 overall. Werner writes that the Bills had a sluggish start (that’s an understatement), but praised their ability to come back to “shake off the cobwebs.” He also called Josh Allen “a beast,” which may also be an understatement.
Connor Orr at Sports Illustrated has the Bills at No. 4 this week. He writes that it’ refreshing to see a team like Buffalo remove some familiar names to find a “new identity” underneath. While he acknowledges Josh Allen’s superhuman act as being something we’ve become accustomed to seeing, he also writes that there was a “freshness” to this Buffalo victory given the contributions from players like Greg Rousseau, who notched three sacks, six tackles, and a forced fumble in the win.
Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk has Buffalo ranked at No. 7 this week, up one spot from where he had them entering the week. He thinks that Josh Allen “might be on the front end of an MVP season,” which might sound a tad crazy given that we’re one game in, but Allen is a perennial contender for the award and he’s on a squad that is perceived to be much weaker in terms of his supporting cast this season. Florio may be on to something.
Eric Edholm at NFL Network also bumped Buffalo up one spot, ranking them at No. 7 this week. He writes that Buffalo’s pass rush looked great last week thanks to Rousseau, but he thinks that the secondary looks “incomplete.” Given that nickel corner Taron Johnson is hurt, that assessment is literally true. Edholm also noted that the score would have been far more lopsided if not for DeeJay Dallas’ 96-yard kickoff return score midway through the fourth quarter.
The panel of pundits at ESPN came together to rank the Bills No. 8 this week, dropping them one spot from their Week 1 placement. Alaina Getzenberg was tasked with writing about the team’s best performance from a newcomer, and she chose defensive coordinator Bobby Babich. Granted, such a choice would have seemed foolish after the first half, but Getzenberg explains that Babich’s second-half adjustments were essential in catapulting the Bills to victory.
Vinnie Iyer at Sporting News ranked Buffalo at No. 7 this week, up one spot from the previous week’s ranking. He writes that Buffalo played through some “key holes” in the linebacker group and in the secondary. Ultimately, he notes that Josh Allen was “too much vs. a much worse Cardinals defense.”
Nate Davis at USA Today pushed the Bills up five spots, raising them from a (ridiculous, honestly) 13th-place ranking to No. 8 this week. He noted that the game was uneven all around, but it wasn’t necessarily unexpected given all the turnover in personnel for Buffalo. He also wrote that it wasn’t at all unexpected when Josh Allen willed the team to victory.
David Helman at FOX Sports has Buffalo at No. 7 this week, two spots higher than they were entering play. He writes that it’s “all hands on deck” in replacing the target share of departed wide out Stefon Diggs, noting that Josh Allen completed passes to nine different players in the win. He called “the ability to call [Allen’s] own number” one of the most effective things going for the Buffalo offense, as well.
Anthony DiBona at Pro Football Network has Buffalo at No. 7 this week, as well. He also praised Allen for spreading the wealth in terms of receiver targets, writing that he “aced” the first test in replacing Diggs and Gabe Davis, who left via free agency this spring.
Frank Schwab at Yahoo! Sports also bumped Buffalo up one spot, placing them at No. 6 this week. Schwab calls it “jarring” that Buffalo needed a comeback to beat the Cardinals, but he acknowledges the fact that many good teams had scares in Week 1 — and some couldn’t overcome them. He also notes that, even though people came calling it “unsustainable” for Josh Allen to put the Bills on his back end route to victory, it is something that just keeps happening time and again.
Finally, Marcus Mosher at The 33rd Team has Buffalo at No. 6, as well, which is also one spot higher than he ranked them entering the week. Mosher writes that Buffalo “outlasted” the Cardinals in what he termed “one of the week’s most fun games.” My heart rate tells me that I didn’t have as much fun as Mosher may have, but I digress. Mosher writes that Buffalo’s offense looked “fantastic,” but he expressed some concern about the defense. That’s a common refrain after the game, but most Buffalo’s issues came before halftime. Let’s hope that the Bills don’t take a similarly long time to kick into gear this week in an important divisional matchup against the Miami Dolphins.