3 NFL Playoff teams from last year that will miss the postseason in 2020
By Dustin Baker
2. Buffalo Bills
Follow along, please. The Cleveland Browns hired a bright young coach from the Minnesota Vikings, Kevin Stefanski. His mission is to transform the talent-heavy Browns into a playoff team. There is a reasonable possibility he will do just that, although much of that optimistic thinking lies on the shoulders of quarterback Baker Mayfield.
Next, the Pittsburgh Steelers generally do not partake in back-to-back bad (or even mediocre) seasons. That is not head coach Mike Tomlin’s modus operandi. Pittsburgh will see the return of probably-healthy Ben Roethlisberger, and then Tomlin usually takes care of the rest. There is a stronger possibility they make the playoffs than missing out altogether.
With those two announcements, one team has to go. That team resides in Buffalo, NY.
And, it will not be because of defensive struggles. Since quarterback Josh Allen was drafted in 2018, the Buffalo Bills have had the league’s best defense via yards allowed. Buffalo’s defense has carried the franchise recently, and somehow, the offense is perceived as up-and-coming. There is a dirty little secret in the NFL that few people know about: the Buffalo Bills offense ranks 30th in points allowed during the last two years.
Perhaps the offense will catch up to the prestige of the defense with the arrival of wideout Stefon Diggs, but it will take a fundamental flip of the switch by Josh Allen for this occur. And by fundamental, we actually mean fundamental. Twenty-five quarterbacks have started 20+ games in the NFL since 2018. Josh Allen’s 78.6 passer rating ranks dead last of these 25 signal-callers.
That is not easy to overlook. It’s the central factor in why the Bills may be passed by in the 2020 playoff hunt.