The Buffalo Bills’ offseason makeover drew a harsh review from ESPN’s Seth Walder, who put the team near the bottom of his leaguewide rankings and questioned both the coaching reset and several of the roster moves that followed.
Walder handed Buffalo a C in his breakdown of all 32 teams, a mark that left the Bills tied with a number of clubs and just above the Arizona Cardinals, who were the only team to land lower with a D. For a team that went into the offseason aiming to finally push through to a Super Bowl, it was not the kind of public grade Buffalo was hoping for.
The biggest strike, in Walder’s view, was the decision to fire Sean McDermott. He called that move “controversial” and said he was “weary” of Buffalo keeping Brandon Beane as general manager while handing the head-coaching job to Joe Brady.
“While Buffalo did not reach the Super Bowl under McDermott, which is rough given the quality teams it had, I would blame that mostly on close-game luck and variance rather than any systemic issues that McDermott could be blamed for,” Walder said.
Walder also took aim at the Bills’ roster work. He criticized the pick-swap trade that brought DJ Moore to Buffalo, calling it an overpay given Moore’s season and noting the team committed to paying him $24.5 million each year for the next four years.
The free-agent market didn’t earn Buffalo much help in Walder’s eyes, either. He described the signing of Bradley Chubb to a three-year, $43.5 million contract as “one of the worst in free agency.”
“Chubb recorded 8.5 sacks last season after sitting out 2024 following a torn ACL in late 2023, but the down-to-down numbers told a different story,” he said. “Chubb's pass rush win rate was only 7.6% last season (14th percentile), roughly a third of what he posted in 2023 (21.4%).”
Still, Walder did highlight one Buffalo move as a clear win. He pointed to the team’s pre-free agency extension for McGovern, a four-year, $52 million deal he praised as a bargain once Tyler Linderbaum signed for $27 million per year with the Raiders.
“Buffalo's best move came just before free agency, when it re-signed McGovern to a four-year, $52 million contract,” he said. “At $13 million per year, that contract immediately looked like a bargain once Tyler Linderbaum signed a deal worth $27 million per year with the Raiders.”
Walder’s evaluation is just one opinion, but it adds to the sense that Buffalo has plenty to prove in 2026.
In Other News...
Bills New Era Just Raised The Stakes Around Josh Allen
The Bills are heading toward training camp with a familiar face steering the ship, and theres already a sense that Josh Allens next chapter will be shaped as much by continuity as by change. Joe Brady has now navigated a full offseason in charge, from his first draft to OTAs and minicamp, giving Buffalo time to settle into the new routine before the real evaluations begin.
For a team that has spent the past few years living on the edge of contention, the coaching transition has not lowered expectations one bit. Analysts still see the Bills as a club built to stay in the mix for the next several seasons, and the way Brady has assembled his staff and handled the early months will only sharpen the scrutiny once camp opens. [Read more 🡒]
Bills Were Somehow A Split Second From NFL History Against Baltimore
A bizarre bit of NFL trivia nearly turned into Bills-Ravens history in a 2023 Week 1 matchup, when Buffalo came a split second from being part of the leagues first one-point safety. It is one of the rarest scoring plays in football, available only on a two-point conversion try, and even though the rule opened the door in 2015, the league still has never seen it happen.
Buffalos scare came on a two-point attempt that stayed alive long enough to create the kind of chaos most teams never see, with the defense momentarily in a spot where one wrong step would have handed the Bills a single point. Instead, the play ended with Baltimore escaping the end zone area and the oddest scoring sequence in NFL history still sitting untouched. [Read more 🡒]
Bills Still Have One Flaw That Could Haunt Them In January
Buffalo spent the offseason patching holes on both sides of the ball, and on paper the roster looks deeper and more balanced than it did a year ago. The defensive front has more help, the offense has more options, and there is a real sense that the Bills have tried to make life easier on everybody else by strengthening the pieces around them.
Still, one area remains a little less settled than the rest. The linebacker group is built around Terrel Bernard, Dorian Williams and rookie Kaleb Elarms-Orr, but there is still a clear need for the group to prove it can hold up week after week. If the front does its part, the linebackers may only have to be solid. If not, it could become the sort of midseason issue Buffalo can live with in October and regret when the games tighten in January. [Read more 🡒]