With several days to sit and stew about what unfolded at Arrowhead Stadium, the Bills held their end-of-season news conference — one they wished had been two weeks from now, following a parade in Buffalo. But for a sixth straight season, the Bills fell short in the playoffs, and this time, a heartbreaking 32-29 loss in the AFC Championship Game to the Chiefs.
“Ultimately, the further you go, the worse it stings,” general manager Brandon Beane said. “It’s a kick in the face when it ends like that.”
The Bills accomplished a lot — a 13-4 record, a spot in their second AFC title game in five years and defying lower expectations than they’ve grown accustomed to having after some of their offseason maneuvers a year ago. However, in the end, the result remained the same.
The Bills’ Super Bowl-less streak will reach at least 32 years. Despite the Bills having most of the key members of this year’s team under contract for 2025, the franchise knows difficult decisions to help them reach their ultimate goal of a “world championship” are on the way.
“No one in this building, myself included, is comfortable or content with where we’re at,” head coach Sean McDermott said. “If you keep doing things the right way, eventually that door will open.”
Beane and McDermott spoke for a combined time of over two hours on Thursday. Here’s what stood out from the Bills on some upcoming offseason decisions, and where they could lean in improving the roster.
GO DEEPER
How the Bills will use loss to Chiefs to help shape offseason roster decisions
Cornerback seems like one of the clearest offseason targets
When the Bills lost top cornerback Christian Benford to injury only 12 snaps into the AFC Championship Game, the way the rest of the game unfolded for that position was one of the significant shaping factors of the outcome. It brought Kaiir Elam into the game, and at the same time, the Bills played a ton of man coverage upon Elam’s entry. It did not go well as the All-22 revealed, as Patrick Mahomes completed 11 of his 12 passes for 160 yards and a touchdown against man coverage when Elam was in the game. Elam is entering the final year of his rookie deal, but it wasn’t just a problem with him. Veteran starter Rasul Douglas also struggled in that assignment, which allowed the Chiefs to find success outside the numbers continuously.
Beane was asked about a bevy of topics and positions, but the one with the most declarative statement about an area they could target was at boundary cornerback. Douglas is a free agent and turns 31 in August, and Elam, their top bench cornerback this season, only further solidified that he is the unlikely answer to start in the short or long term. The one thing they have going for them is Benford, a burgeoning star in their defense who will require a long-term contract extension sooner rather than later. Benford is signed through the 2025 season, his age-25 campaign.
But finding the long-term answer next to him, heck, even one that will simply get them by in 2025 until they have to increase Benford’s salary as their top player, would do the trick. Douglas did not have as strong a year in 2024 as he did when acquired via trade in 2023, which calls into question if they’d rather move on this spring. Either way, addressing cornerback, either by re-signing Douglas or bringing in someone new, seems like a priority for Beane.
However, just because Beane was quicker to say boundary cornerback would be evaluated this offseason than other positions does not mean that is the spot they will prioritize above all others when building up the 2025 roster. Beane admitted numerous times throughout the hour-plus that he spoke with reporters that it was still a bit too fresh to give a full analytical outlook on the state of his roster and the future of certain positions. Cornerback is just one that sticks out like a sore thumb here, due to both player performance and expiring contracts.
What to do at wide receiver in 2025
Along with cornerback, there are many logical points behind the Bills addressing wide receiver significantly this offseason. The team touted their “everybody eats” mantra right through the end-of-season press conference, and they enjoyed not feeling the need to force targets to a specific player, and that’s something they would like to continue heading into the 2025 season and beyond. However, some interesting comments were made about the boundary receivers. Most notably, Amari Cooper and Keon Coleman.
Cooper was the Bills’ big in-season acquisition. They sent their 2025 third-round pick and a 2026 seventh-round selection to the Browns for Cooper and a 2025 sixth-round pick. Beane said that he doesn’t regret the trade, though even having to say whether or not he regretted the trade means it was in question. Beane mentioned how the Bills had scored seven more points per game with Cooper in the lineup than when he wasn’t, and that is true. The Bills scored 26.8 points per game in games Cooper was unavailable to them, and 33.7 points with Cooper in the lineup. And while that is true, so is the fact that Cooper was only on the field for 43.6 percent of his available snaps and usually the fourth-highest snap earner of a five-person receiver room. Cooper helped the offensive environment because he brought some attention to him when on the field, but most weeks, he wasn’t an overwhelming factor to the Bills or their opponents. Cooper turns 31 in June and he’ll be a free agent this offseason.
Rookie Keon Coleman brought another interesting answer. When asked to discuss Coleman’s season, the general manager said he thought the rookie did some good things, but it wasn’t consistent. “I did not see the same player down the stretch,” Beane said. He did mention Coleman’s wrist injury was an inflection point for his rookie year, as his impact on games had been lacking and forced others to have more significant roles and outputs. Regardless of his solid early season, his skill set isn’t one that solved some of the issues the Bills passing offense had on the whole. Because of this, a legitimate question surrounds Coleman’s overall ceiling in the Bills offense.
But it all comes down to something McDermott touched on — the ability to win horizontally and vertically. The key term he used was “separation,” something the Bills didn’t get enough of from their boundary receivers, who were primarily the trio of Cooper, Coleman and Mack Hollins. With Cooper and Hollins both free agents, and there not being enough from Coleman’s rookie year to make them sure they’ve got a potential top target on their team just yet, it raises the intrigue over finding someone that can make Josh Allen’s life just a bit easier in 2025 and beyond. Hollins is a strong case to return on another one-year deal, but even he and Coleman bring some duplication in their skill sets and potential role in the offense, which was a problem this season. Finding a true Z-receiver who can separate in the short and intermediate would go a long way in the offense. And if you think their “everybody eats” mentality will prevent them from trying to find a top guy, Beane offered this up on Thursday.
“We’re going to look for the best players we can get. It doesn’t mean, okay, we didn’t have a true number one, so we don’t want that. No, we still want good players, but we’ll always want it to be as selfless of a group as possible.
McDermott spoke about finding the right “blend” to pair those two beliefs. The coach believes those players are out there, they just have to find them. If they can find the right blend of talent, separation skills and character, that could be a priority this offseason to help maximize the prime of Allen’s career.
The Bills could keep Von Miller if he agrees to take another pay cut. (Tina MacIntyre-Yee / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
Von Miller’s future in Buffalo
The Bills aren’t in as nearly of a precarious position from a salary cap perspective as they were this time last year. The NFL has not set the 2025 salary cap, and likely won’t until sometime in mid-to-late February. But if you go by some projected figures, and in this case, we’ll use OverTheCap.com, they have the 2025 figure at $272.5 million. When calculating upcoming cap hits, dead cap from the previous year and the small rollover amount the Bills had from 2024, OverTheCap projects the Bills to be $7.5 million above that $272.5 million projection. That means work will need to be done to get under the cap.
However, where things differ this year as compared to last season is that there aren’t a handful of easier decisions that are immediately beneficial to their cap situation. There are a handful that can save under $5 million, but none that provide a big chunk of immediate relief for when the teams need to be cap-compliant by the start of the new league year on March 12. There is one glaring exception, though, and that’s Von Miller’s contract.
When Miller was initially brought up, Beane said, “we’re going to have to look,” and followed it up with “can you tell me what the cap’s going to be?” Clearly, Miller’s contract will be up for discussion inside the offices in Orchard Park. If the Bills were to move on from Miller, they would immediately be under the cap based on the projected $272.5 million amount. The Bills would save nearly $8.4 million to cut him, which is a tempting idea. Miller was only a situational player throughout the season, providing pass rush reps on third downs and obvious passing situations, and sporadically mixing in on early downs when the starters needed some time off. He did not play over 50 percent of snaps in any game in 2024, and only hit exactly 50 percent one time. That role is not worth the $23.8 million cap hit attached to his name.
There could be a different solution, though, to keep Miller on for the 2025 season and keep an extra rotational player available. At this point, Miller is not owed any guaranteed money in 2025. If they cut him, they would have a $15.4 million dead cap charge on their books without any player to show for it. This could be a clear pay cut situation if Miller is willing to play ball. At this stage of his career, the soon-to-be 36-year-old Miller likely isn’t going to hit the jackpot as a free agent, so using the leverage of that dead cap total to help some guaranteed salary in 2025 could be wise. After all, Miller did take a pay cut last offseason. If the Bills can get Miller to agree to a pay cut of $8.4 million — the amount they’d save by cutting him — or possibly more, it would be a likely win for both parties. If Miller won’t, it becomes a cut-and-move-on situation to use the $8.4 million elsewhere.
Is a Josh Allen extension on the horizon?
As the Bills go through all of their cost-cutting mechanisms this offseason, one of their best ways to maximize 2025 cap relief is to reward the face of their franchise with a brand new contract. His 2025 cap hit is slated to be $43.2 million, and a new deal would lessen that cap hit by a considerable amount with the idea of pushing money forward. Allen’s deal runs through the 2028 season, but given the quarterback landscape since he signed his previous deal, he is overwhelmingly underpaid in comparison. Allen’s deal has an average salary of $43 million, which is only the 14th highest in the league, below the likes of Dak Prescott, Jordan Love, Tua Tagovailoa, Jared Goff and Kirk Cousins, to name a few. Keeping the franchise player happy should always be among the highest priorities as he enters his age-29 season in 2025.
Beane left the door open on a potential new contract for Allen, though he didn’t go as far as to say that it would be a priority for them this offseason. The previous long-term commitment between the Bills and Allen was a lengthy process carefully crafted to optimize Allen’s take-home while also giving the Bills flexibility for cap relief in specific timeframes. The Bills still have a little under a month and a half to get that accomplished before the new league year, which could help their offseason spending in 2025.
However, Allen took that loss to the Chiefs extremely hard, and the Bills are cognizant of giving him the time and space in the short term rather than forcing the conversation immediately to get the ball rolling. Beane said he and Allen have a “great relationship,” and they’ll eventually discuss how the team moves forward, but that process may not happen in the time it takes to get a complex quarterback contract done while the team also balances all of their other upcoming free agents before the March 12 window opens. Regardless, it’s something to keep on the radar as a means to give the Bills their optimal spending abilities this March.
(Top photo of Brandon Beane: Mark Konezny / Imagn Images)
