With Tom Brady no longer in New England, many football experts believe now is the time for another AFC East resident to finally overtake the perennially-powerful Pats – most likely, the blossoming Buffalo Bills. Following their impressive 10-6 mark that saw them reach the payoffs for the second time in three seasons under head coach Sean McDermott, the Bills have some legitimate hopes of, not only reaching the playoffs again, but of overtaking the Patriots for conference supremacy. Now that free agency and the 2020 NFL draft are both complete, it’s time to take a look at what could lie ahead for Buffalo once the 2020 regular season gets underway along with their corresponding NFL Odds.
Buffalo Bills Super Bowl LV Odds & Analysis After Draft
Bills Offense Analysis
Buffalo went 10-6 to finish second in the AFC East behind New England. The Bills finished the 2019 campaign ranked an impressive eighth in rushing (128.4 ypg), but that was the only area they succeeded in offensively. Josh Allen and company finished 24th in total offense a year ago, 26th in passing and an uninspiring 23rd in scoring (19.6 ppg). To address their needs on offense, the Bills traded their first round draft pick to Minnesota for Pro Bowl wide receiver Stephon Diggs. He’ll start along with John Brown and Cole Beasley. While running back Devin Singletary was impressive in rushing for a team-high 833 yards while averaging a stellar 5.1 yards per carry as a rookie in 2019, Buffalo drafted Utah running back Zack Moss with the 86th overall pick in the draft to compliment Singletary and situational back Taiwan Jones.
Bills Defense Analysis
While the Bills struggled mightily on offense last season, they were also pretty phenomenal defensively in finishing third in total defense, fourth against the pass, 10th against the run and a stellar second in points allowed (22.0 ppg). Still, the Bills added to their powerful defense in order to improve against the run. Buffalo signed veteran cornerback E.J. Gaines, defensive tackle Vernon Butler, linebacker A.J. Klein, defensive tackle Quinton Jefferson and defensive end Mario Addison in free agency while drafting defensive end A.J. Epenesa in the second round of the draft.
Buffalo Overall Analysis
In order for the Bills to really improve in 2020, they need to see some serious improvement in their underwhelming passing attack. While quarterback Josh Allen wasn’t awful in his second season, he did complete just 58.8 percent of his passes with a modest 20 TD passes and nine interceptions. Thankfully, the fleet-footed Allen also excels when running as evidenced by his 510 rushing yards and nine rushing touchdowns. Unfortunately, Allen will never reach the heights his powerful right arm suggests he should if he doesn’t improve as a thinker under center. A lack of improvement for Allen will also, ultimately, be Buffalo’s undoing as well as they’ve got a lot invested in their young signal-caller who was taken with the seventh overall pick in 2018. In the end, the Bills, who went a fantastic 9-5-2 ATS last season, look like they could still manage to reach double-digit victories in 2020, but I’m still wary of Josh Allen because of accuracy issues and his inability to progress through his reads.
