Is this the year that the Bills end their playoff drought?
As you can likely guess from their placement in our preseason power rankings, the PFT panel doesn’t think that the Bills will be in the postseason for the first time since Doug Flutie was the team’s starting quarterback. The uncertainty about current quarterback E.J. Manuel has much to do with that. Manuel was limited to 10 games and little preseason practice time as a result of knee injuries, so the team is banking on a full offseason jumpstarting his progress toward becoming a franchise quarterback.
Any hopes of the defense carrying the Bills until that happens took a hit when linebacker Kiko Alonso was lost for the season to a torn ACL. That injury came on the heels of the loss of defensive coordinator Mike Pettine and safety Jarirus Byrd from last year’s disruptive unit and a step back defensively will put even more pressure on Manuel and the offense.
That’s not a great recipe for success and it may not be a great recipe for the future of the front office and coaching staff with an ownership change approaching quickly. Our preview explains why our voters think the new owner will be making his decisions off another losing season, but we want to know what you think about the Bills’ prospects for 2014.
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