Buffalo Bills: Does this team deserve an apology now?

Everyone and their mother wrote off the Buffalo Bills heading into the 2017 NFL season. Do we now owe the team an apology now that they might be legit?

Do we owe the Buffalo Bills an apology? Based on their transactions prior to the season, we thought they were tanking and lumped them together with the rest of the flotsam of the NFL. Besides being wrong about a number of supposed bottom-feeders, the Bills feel semi legitimate. Maybe their “tanking” moves weren’t that at all.

Buffalo is playing good football and tied for first place in the AFC East. Is it time for us to apologize to the team? How wrong were we about the Bills pre-season?

Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem, debate the Buffalo Bills in today’s NFL Sports Debate.

Todd Salem:

It is hard to tell who in this league is any good, but Buffalo at least has non-terrible victories on its ledger. Through seven weeks, it has beaten the good New York team (the Jets!), the Broncos, the Falcons on the road, and Tampa Bay this past week. That Tampa Bay win required Buffalo to score 10 points in the final three minutes of the game. The team’s two losses are by a combined 10 points, and both came on the road. This team is no joke.

So let’s revisit those preseason trades that led us astray.

In the headliner, Buffalo traded away Sammy Watkins and a sixth-round pick for E.J. Gaines and a second. Gaines is sixth on the team in tackles out of the cornerback spot, has a pick, and has forced two fumbles. Meanwhile, Watkins has amazingly been healthy and yet has still been invisible for the Rams except for one quality performance. The Rams have a breakout offense, and Watkins has hardly been a part of it. Hmm.

In the other main trade for the Bills, they shipped Ronald Darby to Philadelphia for a third-round pick and Jordan Matthews. Matthews has been adequate. He was a never a No. 1 wide receiver. Meanwhile, Darby hasn’t played since Week 1 thanks to injury. Hmm.

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It’s wrong to give Buffalo credit for trading away someone who got hurt, especially when that was the non-Watkins trade. But the Bills might have won each of these deals long-term, and perhaps neither one set them back presently like we thought they would.

Buffalo still needs receiver help, not that Watkins would have been the answer. But the Bills have been winning without getting their previously dominant running game on track yet. Again, I don’t know who’s any good yet. 75 percent of the league is essentially in the same boat. But I do know that Buffalo isn’t bad, which is where I thought it would be.

Dan Salem:

The Buffalo Bills are a good football team, but you do not owe them an apology. The skepticism regarding their success this season was warranted. Buffalo had multiple years of falling short of expectations, leading to a shakeup in the coaching staff. The Bills almost shed Tyrod Taylor, a proven quarterback who can win you games. Buffalo also traded away a ton of talent on paper. The team was in a state of upheaval, so it was very difficult to know how 2017 would play out.

Because the Bills kept Taylor and have LeSean McCoy at running back, the offense has two dynamic runners which gives them a huge edge at all times. But its the defense that makes Buffalo so good. Ironically, the defense is finally clicking after Rex Ryan left. He was supposed to be a defensive coach, yet I think he got caught up in ‘prove it’ mode while at the helm in Buffalo. Now the Bills’ defense is ranked fourth in points allowed last season, giving up less than 17 points a game on average. When you are always in a position to win, you are going to win a lot of football games.

As a New York Jets fan, I watched the Bills in Week 1 of the season. They dismantled the Jets and people wrote it off because New York was supposed to be awful. I knew better. It was a close game between a very good team and one with hope to reach such levels. It’s too early to tab Buffalo as a playoff team, because one injury is all it takes to ruin a season. Yet their 4-2 record is better than most, despite being only one game removed from nearly every other team in the entire NFL.

Currently the Bills are undefeated at home and 1-2 on the road. That does not bode well for them going forward, as the schedule splits evenly between home and away games. A losing record on the road won’t cut it, but both loses came by six points or less. That’s how you know this is a good football team.

Next: 2017 NFL Picks, score predictions for Week 8

It appears that the departure of Watkins helped clean house of too much personality. It opened the door for others on the offense to shine and allowed the Buffalo Bills to carve out their identity as a running team that plays great defense. Isn’t that who they were always supposed to be? We’ve witnessed a similar improvement in New York with the Jets, as they cleaned house of all the loud voices and now the team has galvanized and is playing better. Its the winning formula which New England has employed so successfully over the years. No big heads and no big personalities. One team leader and the head coach. Team first. It’s simple and effective.