It’s week 9 of the NFL season, and a matchup on this week’s schedule has the Miami Dolphins squaring off with the Chicago Bears. For our weekly Throwback Thursday feature we’ll land on a game played between these clubs on December 2, 1985. This was a magical season for the Bears. It culminated in a dominating Super Bowl win over New England and along the way introduced America to a wild cast of characters. There was brash coach Mike Ditka and his salty defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan. There was the defiant punk quarterback, Jim McMahon, who taunted commissioner Pete Rozelle by wearing a headband with a corporate logo on it from Adidas, a violation of the league’s strict dress code. After being fined for the violation, he wore a headband that said “Rozelle” on it the next week. He also mooned a helicopter flying over a Bears’ practice during Super Bowl week. The defensive unit was loaded with crazy characters. They included wild-eyed middle linebacker Mike Singletary, future pro wrestler Steve McMichael, and most notably, the lovable William “The Refrigerator” Perry, a plump giant who captured the nation’s affection when Ditka lined him up on offense and allowed him to score touchdowns at the goal line. The players also made a video called the “Super Bowl Shuffle” in which they danced and rapped their way to a Grammy.
Chicago’s wild bunch finished the regular season with a dominating 15-1 record, then shut out 2 playoff opponents before demolishing the Patriots 46-10 in the big game. The game we’re featuring, on that December Monday night, was the only blemish on their record. The Dolphins, of course, are the only NFL team to ever accomplish the feat of going through an entire season undefeated, which they did in 1972 when they went 17-0 overall and won their first Super Bowl. On this night, there were members of that undefeated team on hand for the game, and of course, coach Don Shula, who orchestrated the perfect season, was still coaching the Dolphins. So in effect the Dolphins, and young third year quarterback Dan Marino, were protecting the legacy of the ’72 team in facing the 12-0 Bears.
Marino and the Dolphins never appeared intimidated at all by the vaunted Chicago defense. Marino opened the scoring with a 33 yard touchdown pass to veteran Nat Moore. The Bears then tied the game when quarterback Steve Fuller, who started in place of McMahon who was nursing a shoulder injury, ran in from a yard out. Miami’s defense held the Bears to a field goal while racking up 24 points prior to halftime to lead at the break by an astonishing 31-10. The scoring outburst included a field goal, a pair of 1 yard runs by Ron Davenport, and another Marino to Moore touchdown pass, this time a short 6 yarder. Fuller valiantly tried to bring his team back into the game in the third quarter. He scored himself on another 1 yard run and threw a 19 yard scoring pass to Ken Margerum, but Marino countered those with a 42 yard bomb to Mark Clayton for his third touchdown pass of the game. The scoring ended after the third quarter, and Miami’s 38-24 lead held up as the final score.
The Dolphin defense did a number on Fuller and the Bears with 6 sacks and 3 interceptions, but the real surprise of the night was the ease with which Marino was able to carve up the Bear defense. The loss didn’t faze the Bears much as they didn’t lose another game the rest of the season, but on this night, Shula and the rest of those proud 1972 Dolphins were able to pop the champagne bottles and celebrate, as their mark of the only club to attain perfection remained intact.
It’s already week 8 of the NFL season, and in contrast to our post from a couple of weeks ago that featured a game from just 8 months prior, this week our Throwback Thursday time machine will travel a long way back into the league’s history, to November 4, 1945 for a contest played between two Pennsylvania clubs, the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers, who also are matched up on this week’s schedule. The explanation of why this game is significant requires some historical background. In 1943, in the midst of World War II, a lot of NFL players enlisted in the military to serve the country. As a result, the Eagles and Steelers found themselves in a position of lacking enough players to field teams. The owners of the 2 franchises made the mutual decision to combine rosters and field a single team, temporarily for the ’43 season, that the league record book would officially deem the “Phil-Pitt Combine” but would take on the unofficial moniker as the “Steagles”.
That takes us back to this week’s featured contest. The November, 1945 game would be the first time the clubs met as separate rivals again after their combined efforts a couple of seasons earlier. The Eagles were a contending franchise in the ’40s, and played in 4 title games later in the decade, winning a pair. As for most of their existence prior to the 1970s, the Steelers were awful. Ben Agajanian, whose career would stretch all the way into the 1960s with the AFL, put Pittsburgh on the board first with a field goal, but that’s all they would muster on the day. Eagle QB Roy Zimmerman zipped a pair of touchdown throws to end Jack Ferrante of 26 and 65 yards, and Philly was up 13-3 at halftime. The Eagles came out determined in the second half also, and took control of the game. Future Hall of Famer Steve Van Buren scampered 20 yards for a score and Zimmerman found Fred Meyer from 27 yards out to up the lead to 26-3 entering the final quarter. With the comfortable lead in hand, Philadelphia coach Greasy Neale turned to his running game. The result was 3 rushing TDs from 3 different backs. Jack Banta scored from 22 yards out with Mel Bleeker following up with a 14 yard jaunt. Abe Karnofsky added the icing to the cake with a 19 yard run for the final score, and the Steelers left town with their tails between their legs, on the wrong end of a 45-3 rout.
Despite the one-sided score, the players on each side must have still had a little love and respect for each other, as the entire 60 minutes was played without a single penalty being assessed on either side.
It’s week 7 of the National Football League’s schedule, and a key matchup between AFC and NFC clubs will take place, featuring the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs. Joe Montana, who guided the Niners to 4 Super Bowl titles, didn’t finish his career in the city by the bay, however. He was traded to Kansas City to open up the starting quarterback position for Steve Young. On September 11, 1994, Montana and the Chiefs hosted Joe Cool’s former team for the first time since the trade took place, and that is the game we will highlight for this week’s Throwback Thursday post.
It was early in the ’94 season, week 2 to be exact, and both teams were coming off opening day wins. Montana gave the Chiefs an early lead when he found Joe Valerio open from a yard out for the only score of the first quarter. In the second quarter Montana’s replacement, Steve Young, found his rhythm and guided the Niners on a pair of touchdown drives. The first culminated on a 5 yard Young to Brent Jones TD toss, with Marc Logan finishing off the other with a one yard run. Kansas City gained a bit of momentum before the half ended when they pinned the 49ers deep in their own territory. The Chiefs’ All Pro linebacker, the dangerous Derrick Thomas, trapped Young in his own end zone for a safety, cutting the San Fran lead to 14-9.
The Chiefs’ defense carried that momentum into the second half as they shut down Young and the 49er offense in the third quarter. Montana, as he was always sure to do, came out hot in the second half. He engineered 2 third quarter scoring drives. The first ended with Joe Cool finding tight end Keith Cash for an 8 yard touchdown. He then completed a 2 point conversion pass to J.J. Birden to put the Chiefs up 17-14. Another future Hall of Famer, running back Marcus Allen, upped the K.C. lead to 24-14 with a 4 yard run for a score. Both defenses stiffened in the final stanza, with the only scoring coming on a Doug Brien field goal for San Francisco. That left Young on the short end of a 24-17 final tally, giving Montana a small measure of revenge on the club that traded him to open up the starting job for Young.
The long NFL season took different turns for these clubs as the year progressed. Montana managed to push the Chiefs into a second place AFC West finish and a wild card berth, only to lose that wild card game to Miami. Montana decided to retire after that game. San Francisco had better luck. They plowed through the rest of their schedule, winning the NFC West title and sweeping their playoff matchups all the way to the Super Bowl XXIX, where Young won the game’s MVP award with a dominating performance in a 49-26 thrashing of the San Diego Chargers.
Our Throwback Thursday posts here on Rayonsports span the decades of classic NFL games, but every once in awhile we are compelled to take short trips back in time to find a gem to highlight. That is the case this week, week 6 of the NFL schedule, as the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Buffalo Bills. We travel back a short distance in time, only a matter of months in fact, to the epic AFC Divisional playoff game the 2 franchises staged on January 23 of this year.
The game was a rematch of the previous season’s AFC Championship game, and the Bills had somewhat avenged that defeat by beating the Chiefs in the regular season. This was a win or go home scenario, however, and Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes is tough to beat in those situations. Buffalo struck first on a 1 yard Devin Singletary run, but Mahomes answered that with a pair of scoring drives, scrambling 8 yards to the end zone to finish off the first one, then finding Byron Pringle from 2 yards out to give the Chiefs a 14-7 lead. In a portent of things to come, Bills’ quarterback Josh Allen threw an 18 yard touchdown pass to Gabe Davis to tie the score at halftime.
The Chiefs took control in the third quarter. Harrison Butker kicked a field goal and speedster Mecole Hardman took a jet sweep 25 yards to paydirt, and after Butker missed the extra point K.C. had a 23-14 lead. Allen and the Bills were far from finished, however. The fiery Bills’ leader immediately launched a perfect 75 yard rainbow into the waiting arms of Davis for a score that shortened the deficit to 23-21. Butker opened the fourth quarter scoring with another field goal, but Buffalo then took the lead as Allen and Davis hooked up again, this time from 27 yards out. A successful 2-point try gave the Bills a shocking 29-26 lead and the shootout was clearly on. Doing his part to advance his club to the AFC title game, Mahomes answered with a drive ending on a 64 yard catch and run with the “Cheetah”, wide receiver Tyreek Hill. Hill took a short pass and whizzed past the bewildered Bills’ secondary to retake the lead at 33-29 with a little over a minute left. The game appeared over, but Allen had other ideas. Coming off a near perfect outing in the wild card round against New England in which he guided 7 touchdown drives in 7 possessions, the rising star from Wyoming calmly led the Bills downfield and hit Davis again to put Buffalo ahead 36-33 with only 13 seconds left on the clock.
Bills’ Gabe Davis torched the Chiefs’ secondary
Those 13 seconds will live in infamy in Buffalo Bills’ lore for the utter failure the team produced in that short span of time. Inexplicably, they kicked off into the end zone for a touchback rather than put the ball into the field of play to force the Chiefs to use a few precious seconds. They then employed a very questionable defensive strategy as they played soft and had their cornerbacks protecting the sideline even though Kansas City had all 3 time outs left. This left the middle of the field wide open and Mahomes deftly exploited it, moving his club easily into field goal range, where Butker connected on a 49 yarder to tie the game at 36-36 and send it into overtime. The Chiefs won the coin toss and Mahomes shredded the Bills’ defense, moving his team downfield and hitting All Pro tight end Travis Kelce for the winning score from 8 yards out. The touchdown ended one of the greatest games played in NFL history as K.C. prevailed 42-36. The fallout from this classic battle caused a fury of backlash about the league’s overtime rules, as Buffalo and Allen never had a chance to answer the Chiefs’ drive. Ironically, Mahomes lost to Tom Brady and the Patriots in the same manner a couple of years prior. The resulting anger from fans and even rival GMs led to a rule change beginning in the 2022 season that allows both teams to possess the ball in overtime. Also, the 13 second gaffe resulted in the Bills’ special teams coach, who supposedly didn’t relay the message to his kicker not to boot the ball into the end zone, to quietly leave the organization for a lateral job in Jacksonville.
Lost in the craziness of the game’s ending was the record-breaking performance of Davis, who caught 8 passes for a massive 201 yards and 4 touchdowns. Helped by the extra attention the Chiefs paid to star receiver Stefon Diggs, Davis’ four scores set an NFL playoff record.
In past NFL history, the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants, two of the oldest NFL franchises, have met in some memorable games. They play each other again on this week’s NFL schedule, so we will travel back in time to highlight a game they played against each other. Although they have clashed multiple times in the league championship game in the 1930s, ’40s, ’60s and ’90s, our featured game is a regular season meeting, played on November 1, 1959. The significance? It marked the first game that Green Bay coach Vince Lombardi, a Brooklyn native and former Giant offensive assistant, returned home to face his former team.
Giants/Packers program from 11/1/59
In the mid to late 1950s the Giants were an NFL juggernaut under head coach Jim Lee Howell. They reached the title game 3 times and won it in 1956 over the Chicago Bears. Howell’s main offensive assistant was Lombardi, and the architect of the defense was Tom Landry, who was destined to move on and become the first head coach of the Dallas Cowboys in their inaugural season in 1960. Howell, keenly aware of the combined genius of his top 2 aides, used to joke that his job was to just roll out the footballs to the team and then get out of the way.
That, of course, was an exaggeration, and on this day it was proven that Howell deserved a lot of credit also for the success of his team. New York limited the Packers to just 9 first downs and 160 total yards as they pounded out a 20-3 win over Lombardi’s troops. The Giants’ offense didn’t exactly shine either, but fullback Alex Webster, who would go on to coach the team in future years, had a respectable day to lead the club. He totaled 90 yards combined rushing and receiving, and scored the game’s only 2 touchdowns on runs of 3 and 7 yards. Future broadcasting legend Pat Summerall completed New York’s scoring with two 49 yard field goals. The Giants had one big advantage over the Packers in the game. Their quarterback was Charlie Conerly, a veteran who had guided them to a title. Green Bay’s signal caller was journeyman Lamar McHan. Bart Starr was on the team’s roster but hadn’t yet convinced the coach he was ready to lead the team. That would change later in the season, and Starr would then go on to take the Pack to 6 championship games in 8 years, winning the last 5. Included in the title run were 2 victories over the Giants, in 1961 and 1962.
As the NFL enters week 4 of it’s 2022 schedule, the always entertaining NFC East rivalry between Dallas and Washington is on the menu. For this week’s Throwback Thursday feature we’ll reach way back to November 4, 1962 for a matchup between the 2 clubs. It was week 8 of the season, and both the Cowboys and Redskins were competitive in the NFL’s tough Eastern Division. The New York Giants and Cleveland Browns were dominant forces in the division, and even the lowly Pittsburgh Steelers were playing well that season. Washington came into the contest with only a single defeat at 4-1-2 (ties were common in those days with no overtime) while Dallas was still in it’s infancy, in only their third season under coach Tom Landry. Still, Landry had guided them to a respectable 3-3-1 mark.
Landry, always the innovator, implemented a system on his offense in which he alternated his quarterbacks, something that would be scoffed at in today’s game considering the fragile egos of today’s signal callers. Playing 2 quarterbacks was relatively common in those days, but mostly coaches would make an in-game change solely due to poor performance or injury, since the quarterbacks took brutal beatings back then. Landry took the ploy to extremes as he changed QBs at will regularly during a game. Whether it was a sound strategy or not, it worked out well for the Cowboys on this day. Young Don Meredith got the first kick at the can. After the teams traded first quarter field goals, he connected with Lee Folkins on an 11 yard touchdown pass. Old soldier Eddie LeBaron got his turn next, and he delivered with a 23 yard scoring toss to fullback Amos Marsh. Meredith then took another turn and found J.W. Lockett on a short 4 yard throw to put Dallas in front 24-3. In the final quarter Amos Bullocks scored on a 4 yard run, then LeBaron returned and led a drive culminating in a 14 yard TD toss to Frank Clarke.
Now the rout was on. Redskin coach Bill McPeak then made the move common to the era, replacing the ineffective Norm Snead at quarterback with backup Galen Hall. Hall put together a scoring drive that he finished off himself with a touchdown scamper from a yard out. Marsh was the offensive star for the Cowboys with 10 carries for 109 yards on the ground and 3 receptions for 53 yards and the TD through the air. Dallas left town with an impressive 38-10 victory in tow, but as the season wore on both teams took a nosedive in the standings, finishing fourth and fifth respectively in the 7 team East, each with losing records.
Coach Landry eventually settled on the younger Meredith as the full time starter later in the decade, but he did revert to the alternating tactic again in the early 1970s with Craig Morton and Roger Staubach. The Cowboys finally shed their “can’t win the big one” label in 1971 when he gave Staubach the job full time. They defeated Miami that season for their first Super Bowl title.
A pair of meandering NFL franchises meets on the league’s week 3 schedule, the Las Vegas Raiders and Tennessee Titans. For this week’s Thursday Throwback feature, we’ll highlight an American Football League championship game played between them on New Year’s Eve, 1967. At the time, the Titans were located in Houston as the Oilers, while the Raiders were still in their original home – Oakland. One of pro football’s most nomadic franchises, the Raiders moved from Oakland down the California coast to Los Angeles, back to Oakland and eventually to their current home in the Nevada desert.
At this point, Al Davis, who temporarily left the franchise to become AFL commissioner during merger talks with the NFL, had built his team into a dominant force in the AFL. An October loss to Joe Namath and the New York Jets was the only blemish on an otherwise perfect season as Oakland finished 13-1, winning the AFL’s Western Division crown by a whopping 4 games over rival Kansas City. Houston, under coach Wally Lemm, reversed their fortunes from the previous season, turning a 3-11 record into a 9-4-1 mark that proved good enough to win the Eastern Division title and a trip to Oakland for the championship match.
Although Lemm’s club managed to wrestle the crown from three-time East champion Buffalo and the up-and-coming Jets, they proved to be no match for the Raiders in the title game. Oakland’s rugged defense smothered the Oiler attack, holding them to 146 total yards on the day and forcing 4 fumbles and an interception. Offensively, Raider quarterback Daryle Lamonica completed only 10 passes, but 2 of those went for touchdowns, 17 yards to tight end Dave Kocourek and 12 yards to Bill Miller. Oakland’s offense demolished the Oilers with a relentless ground attack, as both Hewritt Dixon (144) and Pete Banaszak (116) ran for over 100 yards. Dixon’s total included a 69 yard scoring run. Lamonica added a 1 yard touchdown run and George Blanda booted 4 field goals to complete the Raiders’ scoring in a 40-7 rout of the Oilers that was never much of a contest. The beleaguered Houston club could only manage a fourth quarter 5 yard TD pass from Pete Beathard to Charley Frazier, avoiding a shutout but not being very satisfied with the result.
Having bulldozed through the AFL in winning 14 of 15 games, the Raiders appeared to have a team capable of competing with the NFL’s juggernaut Green Bay Packers in the second Super Bowl, following a 35-10 thrashing of Kansas City by the Packers the previous season. Vince Lombardi’s troops, after all, had to muster every ounce of fortitude they had to dispatch the Dallas Cowboys in the “Ice Bowl” to make it back to the big game. Alas, Oakland’s lack of experience showed in the game, and mistakes led to another resounding Packer victory, 33-14.
It’s week 2 of the NFL season and on this week’s schedule the New York Jets tangle with the Cleveland Browns, leading us at Rayonsports to travel back to December 10, 1978 for a late season meeting between these franchises. Both clubs entered the game on the fringes of the AFC playoff race. The Jets stood at 8-6 and trailed both New England and Miami in the AFC East, while the Browns languished at 7-7, ranking third in the AFC Central. With their faint playoff hopes on the line, the 2 teams battled feverishly to stay alive.
Cleveland jumped out to a 14-0 lead as Calvin Hill ran in from 2 yards out for the only score of the first quarter, and quarterback Brian Sipe hit Greg Pruitt with a 22 yard touchdown pass. The teams traded second quarter field goals, and Matt Robinson, subbing since early in the season for the injured Richard Todd, pulled the Jets to within 17-10 at the half with a short scoring toss to Bruce Harper. Cleveland again took charge in the third stanza as veteran placekicker Don Cockroft added another field goal and Sipe scampered into the end zone from 2 yards out, upping the lead to 27-10. Coach Walt Michaels’ Jets refused to fold, however. Robinson engineered a pair of touchdown drives, finishing them off with TD throws of 4 yards to tight end Mickey Shuler and 20 yards to Harper. After Pat Leahy hit a 39 yard field goal and Kevin Long scored on a 1 yard plunge, the Jets had run off 24 unanswered fourth quarter points and found themselves in the lead at 34-27. Coach Sam Rutigliano’s Browns, who had been dubbed the “Cardiac Kids” for pulling off a series of comebacks and late game heroics, dug down deep and drove downfield with Sipe hitting Hill for an 18 yard touchdown with 14 seconds left to tie the game and force overtime.
Cockroft ruined the day for the Jets by connecting on his third field goal, from 22 yards out, to give Cleveland a 37-34 victory. The hard-fought battle went for naught for both clubs. When Miami and the old Houston Oilers both won to clinch the final AFC wild card spots, both Cleveland and New York were officially eliminated. They each finished the season with mediocre 8-8 records after that, and this game took a toll the following week as both teams appeared deflated. The Jets lost to Dallas 30-7 and the Browns were pummeled by Cincinnati 48-16 in the season’s final games.
The 2022 NFL season is upon us, beginning with the league’s Thursday Night opener in Los Angeles. The start of the new season also marks the return of our weekly Throwback Thursday feature, which highlights a game from the past played between 2 teams that are pitted against each other on the schedule that week. The schedule makers have the Detroit Lions meeting the Philadelphia Eagles in week 1 this season, so we’ll travel back to December 30, 1995 for a Wild Card playoff matchup between this pair of old NFL clubs.
The game saw the Eagles’ quarterback, Rodney Peete, matched up against the team he had spent the first 5 years of his career with in the Lions. The teams traded first quarter touchdowns as Charlie Garner scampered 15 yards to paydirt for Philly and Detroit QB Scott Mitchell tossed a 32 yard touchdown pass to David Sloan. The fortunes for the 2 signal callers, Peete and Mitchell, changed drastically after that. Peete guided the Eagles on a scoring rampage that stretched into the third quarter, as Philly racked up 51 unanswered points. Meanwhile, Mitchell’s day went south, as he was sacked twice and threw 4 interceptions before being replaced by Don Majkowski. The Eagles’ scoring onslaught included 3 TD passes from Peete to Fred Barnett, Ricky Watters and Rob Carpenter, a 1 yard touchdown run by Watters and 3 Gary Anderson field goals. The defense also chipped in, as Barry Wilburn returned one of the picks from Mitchell 24 yards for a touchdown.
Now trailing 51-7 in the third quarter, Detroit coach Wayne Fontes inserted Majkowski into the game hoping to at least regain some pride. The “Magic Man”, as Majkowski had been dubbed in earlier years while with Green Bay, lived up to the moniker. He proceeded to lead touchdown drives in the final 2 quarters that ended with 4 touchdown passes, including a 68 yarder to Herman Moore. Unfortunately for the Magic Man, the Philadelphia defense intervened in the comeback and stemmed the tide of Detroit scoring when William Thomas picked off a Majkowski pass and returned it 30 yards for the Eagles’ second pick six of the game. When the dust finally settled, Philly escaped with a 58-37 victory. Despite surrendering the 37 points, the Eagle defense had a stellar day with 6 total interceptions and the 14 point contribution to the scoring. The win was the highlight of the ’95 playoffs for Philadelphia. They were routed by the eventual Super Bowl champions, coach Barry Switzer’s Dallas Cowboys, 30-11 the following week in the divisional round.
Thirteen seconds. It goes down in Buffalo Bills’ lore along with Wide Right as another huge disappointment for fans of the team. It’s the amount of time they couldn’t hold the lead at the end of their divisional playoff loss to Kansas City last year in what could have been a Super Bowl season. It also will be a prime motivator for the club throughout the 2022 campaign. They are being hailed as title favorites by analysts everywhere, and here is our look at the team entering this season:
Front Office/Coaching
Brandon Beane and his staff have done an A+ job of building the Bills into a contender through trades, free agency and shrewd drafting. Joe Schoen, the assistant GM, was lost to the New York Giants, but the quality of the 2022 draft shows that the front office didn’t miss a beat. Head coach Sean McDermott has mostly been solid but he has to take the majority of the blame for the 13 second disaster. His coaching staff will be different, with offensive coordinator Brian Daboll and offensive line coach Bobby Johnson following Schoen to New York. Also, special teams coach Sean Farrell left for Jacksonville. The replacements for those 3 are Aaron Kromer as O line coach, a position he held previously here under Rex Ryan, and a pair of in-house promotions of Matt Smiley as special teams coach and Ken Dorsey from quarterback coach to OC.
Quarterbacks
QB Josh Allen, MVP candidate
Without question, the quarterback position in Buffalo is now set in stone. Josh Allen enters the 2022 season as a solid MVP candidate and the engine that drives the Bills’ offense. The only question going into training camp was who would replace the departed Mitch Trubisky as his backup. GM Brandon Beane went with NFL game experience, bringing in Case Keenum to fill that role. Matt Barkley also returns, albeit to the practice squad, to help out in the quarterback room.
Running Backs
Starting back Devin Singletary
Buffalo’s running back group can be described this season as versatile if nothing else. Starter Devin Singletary came on late in the year to provide a spark to a lagging rushing attack. His forte is racking up missed tackles by defenders. Zack Moss, now fully recovered from injury, is the short yardage and goal line pounder the team will need, while rookie James Cook could be the most well-rounded of all of them. He has one attribute the other 2 lack – breakaway speed. He is also a sneaky tough runner and has elite skills as a pass receiver out of the backfield or spread out wide. How he will be used in the Bills’ attack is one of the most intriguing mysteries going into the season. Taiwan Jones is on the roster strictly for his special teams play.
Receivers
TE Dawson Knox, an emerging force
Buffalo’s receiving corps underwent some changes in the off-season. Emmanuel Sanders and Cole Beasley are gone. Stefon Diggs is the clear # 1 threat, while Gabe Davis, who gained national notoriety in last year’s playoffs, replaces Sanders as the other outside receiver. In Beasley’s slot position, the team has a pair of options in Isaiah McKenzie and free agent signee Jamison Crowder, a seasoned vet who killed the Bills in the past while suiting up for the division rival Jets. They should more than make up for Beasley’s production. Rookie Khalil Shakir turned heads with his play in preseason. Some are predicting that his role may be similar to the one Davis played as a rookie – a solid contributor off the bench in key situations. The final WR of the group is Jake Kumerow, a fixture on special teams and occasional contributor on offense. Buffalo is carrying 4 tight ends on the roster, the best of whom is Dawson Knox. He is the unquestioned starter. Tommy Sweeney returns in a backup role and a spot on special teams, while Quinton Morris, a practice squad member in 2021, fought his way onto the regular roster this year with a solid preseason. The fourth TE is Reggie Gilliam, whose versatility is valuable. He plays tight end, fullback and special teams.
Offensive Line
Ryan Bates solidified the OL when he became a starter
The offensive line play vastly improved late in the season and in the playoffs last year after Ryan Bates was inserted into the starting lineup at guard. The line returns mostly intact, with a couple of minor tweaks that the Bills hope will make them even better. The addition of line coach Aaron Kromer is one change, while the one new starter, guard Rodger Saffold, is a seasoned veteran who should be an upgrade over the departed Darryl Williams. The anchor of the line returns in center Mitch Morse, and the starting tackles are once again Dion Dawkins, who is a borderline Pro Bowler, and young Spencer Brown, who fought his way into the starting role last season as a rookie. The depth along the line is a mixture of returnees in Tommy Doyle and the polarizing Bobby Hart, and free agent acquisitions David Quessenberry and Greg Van Roten. Hart is a whipping boy for the fans, but he has shown improvement, especially when filling in at guard. Quessenberry may be the best swing tackle the team has employed in years, and Van Roten is versatile in that he can man all spots on the line.
Defensive Line
DE Greg Rousseau is primed for a breakout year
In many of Buffalo’s losses last season a glaring weakness in stopping the run was exposed. GM Beane did an extreme makeover of the defensive front in an effort to correct this flaw. Five of the nine D-linemen on the 2022 roster are changes from last year, with the big prize being veteran All Pro end Von Miller. The former Super Bowl MVP is the “finisher” the Bills’ pass rush has lacked, and the attention he will draw from opponents should make life easier for the emerging young pass rushers on the roster – Greg Rousseau, Boogie Basham and A.J. Epenesa. Former Bills’ first round draftee Shaq Lawson returns as a “new” face to add to the pass rusher rotation. The interior of the line needed some additional beef and Beane provided that with 3 free agent signings. They are DaQuan Jones, who figures to start at one tackle spot, Tim Settle, a potential breakout star who was buried on the depth chart in Washington behind some high draft picks, and another old face returning in Jordan Phillips, who should bring a spark when utilized in the rotation. The lone returning player among the tackles is Ed Oliver. He has improved every year, and could be ready to have his best season with all the new additions around him commanding more attention.
Linebackers
Tremaine Edmunds anchors the LB corps
It was somewhat surprising that the Bills kept 6 linebackers on their final 53 man roster considering they only use 2 on the field most of the time. (The actual number could be 7 if suspended Andre Smith is counted). They have 2 solid starters in Tremaine Edmunds and Matt Milano. Both have helped the team rank as a top defense and should be capable of reaching an even higher level with the new extra help around them. Their backups are special teams stalwarts Tyler Matakevich and Tyrel Dodson, with impressive rookies Terrel Bernard and Baylon Spector waiting in the wings behind them. All 4 of the reserves figure to have roles on the special teams when all is said and done.
Defensive Backs
CB Dane Jackson bears heavy responsibility in 2022
Always the strength of the team’s top-ranked defense, the secondary is a question mark entering the season. Pro Bowl cornerback Tre’Davious White will miss at least the first 4 games while recovering from a knee injury, leaving Dane Jackson and a pair of rookies, Kaiir Elam and Christian Benford, to hold down the outside corner positions. The safety tandem of Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer will be expected to guide the inexperienced new faces on the back end, but both of them missed training camp reps due to injury and could be shaking off some rust to start the year. The slot cornerback position is basically a starting spot on the Bills’ defense, and Taron Johnson handles those duties admirably. The Bills have great depth in their secondary. Backup safeties Jaquan Johnson and Damar Hamlin could start for many NFL clubs, while Siran Neal and Cam Lewis are comfortable playing both corner and safety. As with a lot of the backups on the roster, all of the secondary reserves are special teams contributors.
Special Teams
Punter Sam Martin seizes an opportunity
Coach Sean McDermott puts extra emphasis on the bomb squads, and that is evident in the amount of players who stick on the final 53 almost exclusively for use on those parts of the team. They include Taiwan Jones, Jake Kumerow, Tyler Matakevich, Tyrel Dodson, Damar Hamlin, Reggie Gilliam and of course, long snapper Reid Ferguson. Kicker Tyler Bass is one of the NFL’s best. At punter, the Bills endured a major hiccup with the Matt Araiza allegation fiasco, but in the end may have actually upgraded the position when vet Sam Martin was cut by Denver and fell into their lap. In the preseason the identity of who will fill the roles as punt and kickoff returners wasn’t evident. Candidates include Isaiah McKenzie, Khalil Shakir and possibly James Cook.
Here’s your annual song to get psyched up for the upcoming season, the Bills’ Shout song:
