After another big win, the Bills are near the top
The Buffalo Bills are one of the best teams in the NFL in 2024. That’s true whether one judges by the team’s performance or its record. It’s also reaffirmed by their place in the power rankings. After an offseason with low expectations, the Bills have come out and proven their naysayers wrong through 12 games.
with their 35-10 victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, Buffalo clinched the AFC East Division title for the fifth year in a row. Yet, the team knows that their season will be measured by their performance in January — and, hopefully, in February. For now, though, it’s clear that most outlets view the Bills as a legitimate threat to play meaningful football deep into the winter.
For our first ranking, we go to ESPN, where the pollsters at the Worldwide Leader have the Bills at No. 2 this week. Alaina Getzenberg was asked to write about a player who should be a first-time Pro Bowl nominee, and she picked defensive end Greg Rousseau. While she notes that Buffalo has plenty of candidates for this recognition — all of the offensive linemen other than Dion Dawkins have yet to make a Pro Bowl, and the same goes for cornerback Taron Johnson — she feels that Rousseau’s year has been deserving of the recognition. Groot has 6.5 sacks, is sixth in the league in pressure percentage (13.8%), is tied for sixth in quarterback hits (19), and is third in tackles for loss (15). He’s been outstanding in his fourth professional season.
Marcus Mosher at The 33rd Team has Buffalo ranked No. 3 this week. He writes that Buffalo has “the best bad-weather quarterback in the league” in Josh Allen, calling Highmark Stadium a “massive homefield advantage.” He doesn’t see a team coming into Orchard Park, NY and winning a playoff game. Not to be that guy, but the Bills have been eliminated at home in each of the last two seasons, though, so we can never be too sure.
Matt Johnson at Sportsnaut has Buffalo ranked No. 3 this week. He notes that Sunday’s win over San Francisco was “complete domination.” He thinks that the Bills are one of the few teams that can be counted on to dominate week in and week out, adding that the team had big plays in the run game to go with a sharp defensive performance.
Doug Farrar at USA Today has the Bills at No. 3 this week. In the same breath, though, he asks whether the Bills should be considered the top team in the league. He has the Bills ranked behind the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles. He writes that the Bills have a “strong case” at that top spot after wrapping up the AFC East early. They’re averaging 30.4 points per game over the course of their seven-game win streak.
Pete Prisco at CBS Sports has Buffalo ranked No. 2 this week. He writes that the Bills are not satisfied with merely earning another AFC East crown. It’s the Super Bowl they’re after, and Prisco thinks that quarterback Josh Allen is now the MVP favorite after Sunday’s convincing win.
Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk has the Bills at No. 2 this week, as well. He laments that the Las Vegas Raiders could have made the Bills the AFC’s top seed, but he notes that the Raiders “blew” their chance at victory. Buffalo remains No. 2 for at least another week.
Vinnie Iyer at Sporting News has Buffalo ranked No. 3 this week. He writes that the Bills “got a break with a shorthanded, fading 49ers team at home” on Sunday, but he still thought the win was a good one. He wrote that the Bills “took care of business” in a game that they needed to have.
Frank Schwab at Yahoo! Sports has Buffalo at No. 3 this week, as well. He explains his rationale for having Buffalo leapfrog the Kansas City Chiefs thusly: “The Bills get to move up a spot because they continue to look better than the Chiefs. The Chiefs have a better record and a championship pedigree but they’re barely getting by.” He adds that Buffalo just needs one Kansas City slip-up to jump to the AFC’s No. 1 seed.
Ben Rolfe at Pro Football Network ranked the Bills No. 3 this week. He writes that Buffalo is the last of the “very elite” teams in the league, lumping them in with the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles in that category. He writes that Buffalo’s upcoming two-game road trip against NFC foes could vault them to the top of the rankings depending on the results.
Finally, Eric Edholm at NFL Network has the Bills at No. 2 this week. He notes that the Bills have plenty of things going well at present — they scored 35 points even though Josh Allen passed just 17 times, linebacker Matt Milano came back for 37 snaps, and they’ve scored 30 points in six straight games — and he notes that Milano’s return should be a “game-changer” for an already solid defensive unit.