Buffalo Bills:

Trying to make people forget about the four straight Super Bowls

The Buffalo Bills are one of the more storied franchises in all of the National Football League. They have had greats like O.J. Simpson, Thurman Thomas, Jim Kelly, and Bruce Smith proudly wear their jersey. They will be forever known for the team that made it to four straight Super Bowls and lost all four. They were the best team in the considerably weaker AFC and it showed when they got into the Super Bowl. They weren’t flops or disappointments or anything like that. They were only favored to win one Super Bowl, in 1992 when they matched up against the Giants and even then the reason for the line was because the Giants starting quarterback Phil Simms was out. It’s actually a great accomplishment that a team displayed that kind of dominance over a conference for that long of a time. In more recent memory the Bills would give their collective left arm to have the same kind of disappointments that they had from 1990-1993. The last time the team had a winning record was in 1999 when the team finished 11-5 and was ousted out of the playoffs by the Tennessee Titans on the last play of the game. The Bills had the game all square at 16-16 when they kicked the ball off to the Titans with just a few ticks left on the clock. The Titans fullback Lorenzo Neal picked it up and handed it off to tight end Frank Wycheck who threw it across the field to wide receiver Kevin Dyson who ran into the end zone untouched.

To say that the Bills underachieved during the 2003 campaign is a gross understatement. The team was filled with talented veterans and an offense that was highly touted the year before and they finished with a 6-10 record. The team just seemed to lack the cohesiveness they possessed the year before. The defense was playing great but the offense had trouble moving the ball. They finished 3 rd in the AFC East and hope to turn it around next year.

In the off-season the Bills are hoping the saying “addition by subtraction” will hold true. The team fired head coach Gregg Williams and brought former Steelers offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey. They let go of main contributors like guard Ruben Brown, fullback Sam Gash, and cornerback Antoine Winfield. They did bring in defensive tackle Oliver Gibson and guard Chris Villarrial. The big fish they landed in the free agent market was cornerback Troy Vincent who has been a Pro Bowler for the past four seasons and still appears to have a lot of gas left in the tank.

In the draft the Bills took a couple of steps to shoot some life into their offense and to try to get their loyal fans to come back to the Bills' box office. Of their six draft picks the Bills used five of them on offensive players. The first guy they grabbed off the board was Wisconsin wide receiver Lee Evans. Evans is a ridiculous athlete that runs a 4.33 40-yard dash and bench presses 315 pounds. The Bills then turned around and made a trade with the Cowboys to get back into the first round. They selected Tulane quarterback J.P. Losman with the 22 nd pick in the draft. Losman is a moderately sized quarterback that the Bills will develop into their quarterback of the future to replace Bledsoe when he’s done. Some skeptics have even said that if Bledsoe performs as badly as he did in 2003 to look for Losman to take the reigns of the offense.

The way the Buffalo offense was built was in the same mold of the Dallas Cowboys of the ‘90s with three big time offensive weapons. They are led by multiple Pro Bowler Drew Bledsoe under center, running back Travis Henry and wide receiver Eric Moulds. The three should’ve combined to have been a great offense last year but they had trouble and only managed to rank 28 th overall in total yards.

The defense for the Bills last year was stellar. Despite having to have to be on the field a great deal more than they should, because of the offense’s inability to score, they finished ranked 2 nd overall in team defense. The defense is led by linebackers London Fletcher and Takeo Spikes who have both made multiple trips to the Pro Bowl. They will only be better with the addition of Troy Vincent.

All Images, Content and Design © 2004