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2024 Buffalo Bills Season Final Report Card Grades

by Coach Muki
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Written by Mykail Mereau

As the 2024 season for the Buffalo Bills has been concluded after Sunday’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game. Today we go over each position of the Buffalo Bills giving out each grade on offense, defense and special teams and see how well they performed throughout the whole season. Also concluding with the team overall final grade from this season.

Offense: Quarterback

We begin with the most important position in all of football, the quarterback. After having being called a turnover machine, voted as the most overrated quarterback by his peers and couldn’t succeed without a top star wide receiver. This season Josh Allen silenced his doubters and haters and made them look like fools, with him evaluating his game to the next level, putting the team on his back with a lesser roster and making history along the way Allen had probably his season to dated in his career. Also taking care of the football and not putting it in harms way he cut down on his interceptions this year with only six on the season. Josh Allen earned a Pro Bowl selection, second team all-pro and a finalist for the MVP award. It’s no question that Allen is the heart and soul of this Buffalo Bills team because without him the team wouldn’t be a Super Bowl contender right about now.

Final Grade: A +

Offense: Running Back

The Bills running game on offense hasn’t been nonexistent since the team drafted Josh Allen and making him do everything being the passing game and running game. Well that was no longer the case anymore because the Buffalo Bills offense has become more balanced ever for this season than previous seasons before. It starts with superstar running back James Cook who had another great season under his belt and having back to back season with 1,000 rushing yards for the first Bills running back to do so since LeSean McCoy in 2016 and 2017 and tied for first with the most rushing touchdowns of sixteen in total along with Baltimore Ravens superstar running back Derrick Henry. Buffalo’s rookie running back Ray Davis had a sensational rookie campaign with only 442 rushing yards along with three rush touchdowns and the Bills third string running back Ty Johnson had another solid season with the team as well. This running back group with Cook, Davis and Johnson could potentially one of the most lethal running back trios in the league keeping a lot of defensive coordinators up at night. It’s a special group of talented players on this position and very excited to the future outlook of the running back position.

Final Grade: A –

Offense: Wide Receiver

The wide receiver position was the most talked about than any other position on the Bills roster back in the offseason. With the departures of Stefon Diggs and Gabriel Davis it left a lot of folks in the national media questioned on how the Bills offense will look without their two star wide receivers. Well the wide receiver position answer the called and deliver throughout the season. Bills wide receiver Khalil Shakir with the focal point of this offense especially in the slot and screen passing game, rookie Keon Coleman had his moments in his first year but dealt with some injuries towards the mid season, Mack Hollins was the biggest surprise of the group having some key big moments and Amari Cooper had his fair shares in the offense too. The motto for this group was “Everybody Eats” and it worked for the most part of the season. I still believe this offense is lacking a true star wide receiver on the team, but if the Bills believe their first pick from last year’s draft Keon Coleman could be that guy for the future of this team going forward. I think in the first year of retooling this group they did a good job putting players in some major roles throughout the year and curious to see how on they could evolved the wide receiver position in the second year of retooling the position.

Final Grade: B –

Offense: Tight Ends

Now the tight end position was the one position that Bills fans would excited for heading into the season. With Dalton Kincaid entering his second season and Dawson Knox being his co-star. Yet the tight end position felt a little bit of nonexistent during the season. Kincaid had a sophomore slump throughout the whole season after having a solid coming out of party from his rookie season and Knox was pretty much on run blocking but had some nice plays there and there at times. So the tight end position has to be more in involved of the offense heading into next season with Kincaid heading into his third season with a potential breakout season and Knox being more a juggernaut tight end like a Gronkowski than just being a run blocker for the Bills running game at times.

Final Grade: C –

Offense: Offensive Line

With the final position on the Bills offense it’s probably one of the best positions on the roster than quarterback no other than the offensive line. Through 2018-2022 the Buffalo Bills offensive line unit was one of the biggest weak links on the offensive side having Josh Allen running for his life in his first five seasons in the league. But now the tables have turn, since 2023 the Bills offensive line has been one of the best units in the league only giving up the fewest sacks in the league in 2023 with only twenty four sacks allowed and this season with only fourteen sacks allowed the most fewest sacks allowed by a team since 2009. The Bills starting left tackle Dion Dawkins earned a Pro Bowl selection, Spencer Brown had a tremendous season, O’Cyrus Torrence took another step in his second year, Connor McGovern step up at the center position filling in former Bills center Mitch Morse and David Edwards did his part at the left guard position. This is a great unit of players within the offensive line and they are among the league’s best offensive line does a great job of protecting their superstar quarterback making his life a lot more easier than his first five years in the league.

Final Grade: A +

Defense: Defensive Line

Switching to the defense positions starting off with the defensive line. The Bills defensive line has looked good on paper, but in reality has been a major disappointment. With not generating any pressure and not getting after the quarterback. The only bright spot is the defensive line getting sacks with Gregory Rousseau leading the team with most sacks in eleven of total followed by Von Miller with eight, AJ Epenesa and Ed Oliver tied with six and DaQuan Jones with one. The defensive line has been consistent with creating sacks, but inconsistent at getting after the quarterback and creating any pressure. Buffalo’s defensive line has amount of talent in the group and a bright future with guys like Javon Solomon and DeWayne Carter, it’s just has to be more productive at two key areas than being consistent at one key area with Bobby Babich going into his second year as the Bills defensive coordinator.

Final Grade: C –

Defense: Linebacker

The backbone of the Bills defense throughout the season has been their linebacker position. The linebacker duo of Matt Milano and Terrel Bernard has nothing but tremendous for the Bills defense, even though Milano was out dealing with a torn ACL injury and came back towards the end of the season just getting up to speed to his former self on the field. As for Bernard, while Milano was out for the first half of the season Bernard took command of the defense and had guys like Dorian Williams stepping up and making big plays with Milano’s absence. The future of the Bills linebacker core is definitely going to be a very interesting one to keep a eye on going forward with players like Terrel Bernard and Dorian Williams especially when the team feels like they don’t need Matt Milano anymore when they have his replacements on the roster.

Final Grade: B +

Defense: Cornerback

Another backbone of the Bills defense is the cornerback position. For years Tre’Davious White was the best Bills cornerback for many seasons but once the injuries started to happened he wasn’t the same Takeaway Tre as before. But luckily they found another great cornerback who’s arguably been the best cornerback in the league Christian Benford. He’s been locking down some of the league’s best wideouts like Tyreek Hill, Courtland Sutton, Jaylen Waddle, Garrett Wilson and Davante Adams. His partner in crime Rasul Douglas has been inconsistent throughout the year with holding penalties, being flagged multiple times and giving up some big plays to the opposing team and Taron Johnson being the league’s best nickel cornerback making spectacular plays and showing up in keys moments. The Bills have best cornerback trio since the days of Tre’Davious White ,Levi Wallace and Taron Johnson. So I excepted Benford to take his game to another next season, Douglas coming back to the team since he’s a free agent going into free agency and clean up his mistakes from this season and Johnson earning himself an defense All-Pro season in 2025.

Final Grade: C +

Defense: Safety

Last but not least with the final position on defense being the safety position. Since 2017, the Bills secondary has been their strongest unit led by the best safety duo tandem in Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde. But back in the offseason they let go of Poyer and Hyde (although Hyde came back to the team in December) the secondary was lacking in terms of talent and led by Taylor Rapp, Damar Hamlin and rookie Cole Bishop. As the season went by this Buffalo secondary was just very hard to watch with guys missing tackles, not on their guy and giving up a chunk of plays in the middle of the field. Rapp was the bright spot on the secondary but getting injury as the season went on. As for Hamlin and Bishop those two were just very hard to watch on the field more towards Hamlin than Bishop. Hamlin gave up ton of big plays down the field and not staying on his guy. He’s more of a depth player than actual starter, Bishop on the other hand he’s a rookie but he has to improve his game heading into his second year. So this position on the Bills roster definitely needs a retooling going into next season.

Final Grade: D

Special Teams: (Kicker, Punter and Punt returner)

The final position on the Bills roster is no other than the special teams unit. Now there were some questions about this unit going into the season especially with kicker Tyler Bass. He received a lot of major heat after the Bills divisional round loss to the Kansas City Chiefs just a season ago missing a 44 yard field goal to tied up the game and sending it to overtime. He was shaky at the beginning of the season, but he turn around once he hit the 61 yard field goal game winner against the Miami Dolphins back in Week 9 he regain his confidence and hasn’t looked back since then. Punter Sam Martin had 54 punts on the year, but got to sit down for most of the games. Rookie punt returner Brandon Codrington who the Bills traded with their division rival the New York Jets in the offseason made the All-Rookie team and was showing punt returning ability on some of his punt return runs and could’ve a couple of touchdowns along with way while experimenting with the new NFL rules throughout the season. I think the special teams unit is solid group, but it has to improve tremendous moving forward.

Final Grade: C +

Final Grade on the Buffalo Bills 2024 Season

Not the ending we want from last Sunday’s AFC Championship Game against the Kansas City Chiefs with one game away of going to the Super Bowl. But for the most part in a year where the Buffalo Bills Super Bowl window was supposed to be closed, the AFC East was supposed to be the New York Jets or Miami Dolphins division and Josh Allen wasn’t going to be the same elite caliber player without Stefon Diggs as his top wideout receiver. The Buffalo Bills proved the naysayers wrong and show that even losing half of their team on offense and defense they prove that in their so called rebuild season, that they are still a top contender not just in the AFC conference, but around the NFL as one of the best teams in the league and that with Josh Allen as the starting quarterback of the team the Super Bowl window is never closed and it’s open as long as possible with Allen at the helm.

Final Grade: B +

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