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Pretenders - The Bills
The last time the Bills played a meaningful game was on January 2, 2005, when they were denied a playoff spot in Week 17 at home by the Steelers' second-stringers. Since that game, the Bills have gone 36-60. And barring a miracle, things aren't about to change. There are a few paths to rebuilding your football team, and over the past six years the Bills haven't followed any of them.....
The difference between the Packers and Steelers and the Bills is all in drafting and developing talent. The Bills occasionally turn up a nugget here and there — Kyle Williams is a fine defensive tackle, and Stevie Johnson deserves to be known for more than his infamous drop against Pittsburgh in overtime last season. But Buffalo's first-round picks over the past 10 seasons have been remarkably dismal. Although running backs selected in the first round consistently return less value than virtually any other position, the Bills have taken three of them with their past 10 first-round picks and have gotten below-average production from each. When the Bills do develop a player like Jason Peters or Paul Posluszny, they don't leave Buffalo because of the crappy weather and the disappointing nightlife; they leave because the organization surrounds them with terrible players, overmatched head coaches, and schemes that change from year to year. Until that changes, the Bills aren't going anywhere.
Strangely, we celebrate teams when we can directly link their style of play to a broader narrative about the city and its fans. A team like the Steelers is "blue-collar" because they build teams that grind in the trenches for small gains on offense and don't take any lip on defense. The Chargers are wizards from the future who toss the ball around in the world's most perfect climate. The Raiders are a lawless rogue's gallery. It's sad that the Bills are the most accurate distillation of their city in pro football, an irrelevant team with a bleak present and a future somewhere out West. Or in Canada.
Best-case scenario: The Fitzchise finally scores one for the long-suffering graduates of Harvard and breaks out at age 28 as the Bills win a bunch of shootouts, stay healthy, and go 9-7.
Worst-case scenario: Los Angeles OK's a stadium plan as the Bills win a meaningless Week 17 game against the Patriots to go 4-12, pushing them out of the first overall slot and giving Andrew Luck to somebody else.
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