The Bills spent 2025 leaning into balance, and not just in the abstract. Buffalo lined up in 2x2 on 40.67% of its regular-season snaps, according to SumerSports, making that the team’s most common look across 1,082 charted plays. When it came to 1x3 and 3x1 sets, the Bills combined for 33.54% of their offensive snaps - the 23rd and 31st highest rates in the NFL, respectively.
That kind of formational profile is worth watching again in 2026, because two pieces around the offense have changed. Joe Brady is still there, now as head coach after serving as offensive coordinator, but Sean McDermott is out of the picture. And Buffalo added DJ Moore, a receiver who gives the offense something it didn’t really have last season.
McDermott’s exact influence on the offense is impossible to pin down from the outside. As head coach, he was involved somewhere in the mix, but whether his fingerprints were mainly on game management and run-pass balance or on the team’s broader preference for even, symmetrical looks is something we can’t say for certain. What is clear is that Moore brings a different kind of threat.
He looks like the truest X receiver Buffalo has had since former No. 1 wideout and current free agent Stefon Diggs left. That matters because teams are often less eager to get into unbalanced looks when they don’t trust the isolated backside receiver to win one-on-one, especially on intermediate and deep routes.
In 3x1 or 1x3 formations, the offense often builds the first part of the read on the strong side before coming back to a backside dig. If the outside receiver on that lonely side isn’t someone defenses have to respect, those formations can lose some appeal.
Even with a productive passing game in 2025, Buffalo didn’t really have that kind of dependable true X on the perimeter. Keon Coleman may have been the player the Bills hoped would grow into the role, but that question is off the table now. Moore should step into that spot right away, even if he also moves around the formation.
Brady has already described himself as a “Sean Payton disciple”, and that adds another layer to the discussion. The Denver Broncos, as a point of reference, used unbalanced formations 40.02% of the time in 2025. Whether Buffalo gets closer to that kind of number in 2026 is something to monitor as the season unfolds and Brady and Moore leave their mark on the offense.
In Other News...
Josh Allen Has Never Had A Better MVP Setup In Buffalo
Training camp always brings the same annual MVP chatter, but this year the conversation around Josh Allen feels a little different in Buffalo. The Bills have spent the offseason trying to make life easier on their quarterback, and the arrival of DJ Moore gives Allen a proven target who can help steady an offense that has leaned heavily on his arm and legs for too long. Add in the new coaching direction and the sense is clear: Allen is walking into a setup built to maximize both production and visibility, which is exactly the kind of backdrop that tends to matter when voters start sorting out the leagues best player.
The challenge, of course, is that Allen is hardly alone in that race. Lamar Jackson is adjusting to a new offensive structure in Baltimore, while Joe Burrow is coming back into a Cincinnati situation that looks as complete as it has in years. Still, Buffalos case is the one that stands out because it pairs a quarterback already in the MVP mix with the kind of roster and sideline changes that can turn a strong season into a signature one. The only question now is whether the Bills have finally put enough around Allen to make the award chase feel less like a one-man carry job and more like a true contenders run. [Read more 🡒]
Doug Flutie Still Divides Bills Fans In One All-Time Debate
Doug Fluties place in Bills history has always been a little more complicated than a simple ranking exercise. He belongs in the same conversation with Jim Kelly, Josh Allen and Joe Ferguson as one of the franchises most memorable quarterbacks, and his path to Buffalo was unlike anyone elses, built on a long professional career that stretched across multiple leagues and included major success in Canada before he ever became a familiar name in Western New York.
Fluties legacy in Buffalo still carries a split-screen feel because of what he brought to the team in the late 1990s and what his arrival represented to fans who watched every snap. He helped push the Bills back into the playoffs in back-to-back seasons, but his time there also left behind one of the defining debates of that era, a reminder that even a quarterback with a strong rsum can leave a franchise with admiration, frustration and a few unanswered questions all at once. [Read more 🡒]
James Cooks Market Value Will Frustrate Bills Fans
Running back value around the NFL has been a tricky conversation for years, and James Cook is the latest reminder of how quickly the market can flatten out even for a productive player. ESPNs Bill Barnwell recently ran through theoretical trade values for a handful of Bills, and Cook landed in a tier that reflects the positions diminished standing leaguewide and the contract realities that come with it.
For Buffalo fans, the frustrating part is what that says about the return in any hypothetical deal. Cooks value is being dragged down by the same forces that have made running backs harder to move for premium picks, and Barnwells exercise put him alongside players who are more likely to be viewed as useful pieces than headline-grabbing assets. It is all academic for now, though, because the Bills are not shopping Cook and plan to keep him in the fold. [Read more 🡒]