'When you have 17, the window’s open:' Hunting for answers at One Bills Drive
This team is not right. We ask players how they plan on saving the 2025 season.
ORCHARD PARK, NY — These are strange times for the Buffalo Bills.
Consider the symmetry.
Seven years ago, on New Year’s Eve, longtime Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton connected with Tyler Boyd on fourth and 12 to become a Bills legend without ever wearing a Bills jersey. His late touchdown pass vs. Baltimore ended Buffalo’s 17-year playoff drought. For an entire generation, this team appeared certifiably cured.
Grown men wept tears of joy in Western New York, and beyond.
Now? Dalton has an opportunity to make those same people cry for a much different reason.
No way did anyone in their right mind expect a Week 8 tilt between the Buffalo Bills and Carolina Panthers in Charlotte, N.C., to carry this much significance for the visitors. But here we are. The 4-2 Bills are fresh off back-to-back losses that exposed very real flaws. Considering the ascending Kansas City Chiefs await in Week 9 and Drake Maye is playing like an MVP candidate in their own division, this weekend’s non-conference game has a peculiar must-win feel to it.
With Bryce Young nursing an ankle injury, the 38-year-old Dalton will get the start for a pesky Carolina bunch.
Add it all up and it’s a perfect time for Go Long to visit One Bills Drive again.
By now, all locals have a theory. They range from plausible to crackpot.
On offense, it’s true the wide receivers are struggling to get open, the reigning MVP has been off and the team’s hard shift toward a turnover-averse scheme has real collateral damage. On defense, it’s true this unit strikes fear in no one. A defensive-minded head coach should be able to weather injuries. After all, offensive-minded Kyle Shanahan keeps winning with a skeletal lineup. Sean McDermott’s unit allowed 335 first-half yards to the Atlanta Falcons — the most-ever under his watch.
At the same time, vitriol aimed at Allen saying his wife has helped him realize he’s more than a football player is lunacy. Claiming the time Allen spent shooting a commercial in the offseason zapped his legendary drive is absurd. Those who know the QB best know he’s got an all-time edge.
Starting Sunday, the Bills author the next chapter of their 2025 story.
For now, we catch up with a handful of players to get answers.
There’s one common theme.
Mitchell Trubisky
No. 2 Quarterback
Nobody ever has a sense for the mental state of a team’s starting quarterback quite like the backup. Trubisky has now spent the 2021, 2024 and 2025 seasons with Allen.
Allen was noticeably dejected throughout Buffalo’s 23-20 loss to New England and 24-14 loss to Atlanta.
Before even thinking about X’s and O’s, the Bills need the MVP to find his mojo.
What’s it like around here? A couple losses. Unchartered terrain for a team that’s known a lot of winning to have a little turbulence offensively.