Buffalo Bills: 2018 is going to be an unbelievably rocky ride

It’s staggering how bad the Buffalo Bills are and will continue to be in the 2018 season. The first-overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft seems inevitable.

Considering the moves that they made this offseason, it feels safe to say that not many people expected the Buffalo Bills to be much of anything in the 2018 season. Simply put, the moves they made heading into 2018 put them in a position where they are now at the start of a rebuild. And it would appear in Week 1 that their rebuild will include the first-overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.

Taking on the Baltimore Ravens on the opening Sunday of the season, the Bills simply looked as abysmal as you could think they would. Starting quarterback Nathan Peterman looked every bit as bad as he did a season ago when he started and threw five interceptions in one half.

Meanwhile, the offensive line played as poor as you’d expect a unit that traded away its best player (Cordy Glenn) over the offseason. LeSean McCoy, a player who has made his living off his ability to make defenders miss, could find no room to work. What’s more, Peterman (and later rookie Josh Allen) didn’t even have time to showcase their inklings of talent.

If that weren’t enough, the defense was absolutely torched by the Ravens offense. In case you hadn’t heard, the biggest concern about Baltimore coming into 2018 was that Joe Flacco and the offense have been pedestrian-at-best in recent years. Buffalo’s defense, however, made them look like the 2007 Patriots as the Ravens hung 47 points on the Bills.

The end result in Week 1 of this was a 44-point defeat where a field goal was the lone set of points that the Bills put on the board. Many fans of Buffalo and of the NFL alike may have expected this team to be bad, but this was beyond anyone’s worst nightmares.

Following the first week of the regular season, there is always overreaction. This doesn’t feel like that, though. This feels like we’re watching a Bills team that was in disarray the first week of the season and will remain that way for the rest of the season.

Perhaps the biggest piece of evidence to support that involves what happened at quarterback. Most people would assume that, after his lone start last season, Peterman would have to look like a world-beater to win the starting job if the rookie first-rounder Allen looked anything close to competent. However, it could’ve been accepted that Allen just wasn’t ready to play right now, which is why Peterman was named the starter.

Yet, after watching Peterman play not even another full game, Allen was suddenly ready and the answer to their woes? That just doesn’t make sense, and is clearly a sign of a team that is just grasping at straws in their current position.

At this point, it feels like a lock that the Buffalo Bills are heading towards the first-overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. There were some awful performances around the league in Week 1, to be sure. None of them were worse than what the Bills put forth, however. And we can expect more of the same throughout 2018.