A trend that’s generally consistent among all perennially competitive football teams—and this may shock you—is the presence of talented football players.
And the Buffalo Bills, seeing as they’ve qualified for the postseason in each of the past five seasons and have won at least one playoff game in four of those years, are strong examples of the trend, as they employ no shortage of talented players across their roster. Though the team saw significant turnover in the offseason that led to the departures of players like Stefon Diggs, Jordan Poyer, and Gabriel Davis, Buffalo still deploys one of the stronger rosters in the league, a unit centered around former All-Pro quarterback Josh Allen.
Pro Football Focus recently shed some light on Allen and two additional talented Bills; in an article ranking each NFL team’s three top players entering the 2024 NFL season, PFF’s Trevor Sikkema identified Allen, linebacker Matt Milano, and defensive end Greg Rousseau as Buffalo’s best players entering the new year.
“Josh Allen is the easy choice here; he remains one of the most talented quarterbacks in the NFL, as he led the league with 41 total big-time throws (playoffs included),” Sikkema wrote. “Then this list gets tough. Stefon Diggs, Jordan Poyer, Micah Hyde, Von Miller and Tre’Davious White are either no longer on the team or no longer what they were as impact players. Matt Milano is one of the best linebackers in the NFL but is coming off a season-ending foot injury.
“Greg Rousseau recorded just five sacks last year but played the second-most snaps of any defensive lineman on the team (660) and earned the highest grade (87.2).”
Related: Bills reclamation project WR named among NFL veterans ‘with most to prove’ at OTAs
Sikkema lists underrated defensive tackle DaQuan Jones as an honorable mention.
Allen is the easy and obvious choice for a reason—he’s one of the best players in the NFL, of course he’s one of the best players on his team. He’s coming off a 2023 season in which he threw for 4,306 yards and ran for another 524, tallying 44 touchdowns to become the first player in NFL history to record over 40 total touchdowns in four consecutive seasons.
Milano is another justifiable pick; the 29-year-old, when healthy, is one of the most impactful defenders in football, an effective coverage defender with a penchant for making timely splash plays. He earned First-Team All-Pro Honors in 2022 but, as Sikkema wrote, missed the bulk of the 2023 campaign with a fractured right tibia.
Rousseau is an inspired choice, as the defensive end is widely overlooked around the league despite his excellence as both a run defender and pass rusher. The 24-year-old tallied 42 tackles and five sacks last year, complementing this with 31 run stops and a career-high 62 quarterback pressures, per PFF.
Though not mentioned by PFF, defensive tackle Ed Oliver, linebacker Terrel Bernard, and nickel cornerback Taron Johnson are worthy of mention when discussing a list of Buffalo’s best players. Tight end Dalton Kincaid may warrant consideration at this time next year.
