1986 – 2000: Perennial contender
1986 – 1989: Marv Levy, Jim Kelly, and Bill Polian arrive
Among the names that Buffalo picked up after the USFL’s demise in 1986 were general manager Bill Polian, head coach Marv Levy (both from the Chicago Blitz), special teams coach Bruce DeHaven, starting quarterback Jim Kelly (of the Houston Gamblers), center Kent Hull (of the New Jersey Generals), and linebacker Ray Bentley (of the Oakland Invaders), all of whom joined the Bills for the 1986 season. Midway through the 1986 season, the Bills fired coach Hank Bullough and replaced him with Levy, who in addition to the Blitz had also previously coached the Kansas City Chiefs and Montreal Alouettes. Levy and Polian put together a receiving game featuring Andre Reed, a defense led by first-overall draft pick Bruce Smith, and a top-flight offensive line, led by Hull along with Jim Richter, Will Wolford and Howard “House” Ballard.
After the strike year of 1987, in 1988, the rookie season of running back Thurmon Thomas, the Bills went 12 – 4 and finished atop the AFC East for the first of four consecutive seasons. After a 17 – 10 victory over the Houston Oilers in the divisional playoff, they lost the AFC championship 21 – 10 to the Cincinnati Bengals.
1989 was a relative disappointment, with a 9 – 7 record and a divisional playoff loss to the Cleveland Browns. The Bills had a chance to win the game as time was running out, but Ronnie Harmon dropped a Kelly pass in the corner of the end zone. During this season, the Bills were called the “Bickering Bills” by the fans and media due to significant infighting among the players and coaches throughout the season(19).
In 1990, the Bills switched to a no huddle, hurry-up offense (frequently with Kelly in the shotgun formation, the “K-gun”, named for tight end Keith McKeller and not Jim Kelly)(20), and it led the Bills’ offense to one of the best in the league; their 428 points (26.75 points per game) scored was first in the league. The team finished 13 – 3, and behind their no-huddle attack, beat the Miami Dolphins 44 – 34 and blew out the Los Angeles Raiders 51 – 3 in the playoffs on their way to Super Bowl XXV. The Bills were favorites to beat the New York Giants (whom they had beaten on the road during the regular season), but the defensive plan laid out by Giants coach Bill Parcells and defensive coordinator Bill Belichick kept Buffalo in check (and without the ball) for much of the game. The game featured many lead changes, and with the score 20 – 19 in favor of New York with eight seconds left, Bills kicker Scott Norwood attempted a 47-yard field goal. His kick sailed wide right less than a yard outside of the goalpost upright.
The Bills won their fourth consecutive AFC East title in 1991, finishing 13 – 3 again and with Thurman Thomas winning the NFL MVP award and Offensive Player of the Year. In the playoffs, they routed the Kansas City Chiefs 37 – 14 in the divisional round and beat the Denver Broncos in a defensive struggle, 10 – 7, in the AFC Championship. The Bills looked to avenge their heartbreaking Super Bowl loss a year earlier by playing the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XXVI, but it was not to be. The Redskins opened up a 17 – 0 halftime lead and never looked back, handling the Bills a 37 – 24 loss. Early in that game, Thurman Thomas lost his helmet and had to sit out the first two plays, making the Bills the butt of jokes nationwide(21).
The Bills lost the 1992 AFC East title to the Miami Dolphins and Jim Kelly was injured in the final game of the regular season. Backup quarterback Frank Reich started their wild card playoff game against the Houston Oilers, and they were down 35 – 3 early in the third quarter. In was became known at The Comeback, the Bills rallied behind Reich, taking the lead late in the 4th quarter and winning the game in overtime 41 – 38. The 35 – 3 deficit, remained the largest deficit (32 points) overcome to win a game in NFL history until it was broken in 2022. Buffalo then defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 24 – 3 in the divisional playoff and upset the archrival Dolphins 29 – 10 in the AFC Championship to advance to their third straight Super Bowl. Super Bowl XXVII, played against the Dallas Cowboys, turned out to be a mismatch. Buffalo committed a Super Bowl-record 9 turnovers en route to a 52 – 17 loss, becoming the first team in NFL history to lose three consecutive Super Bowls. One of the sole bright spots for the Bills was Don Beebe’s rundown and strip of Leon Lett after Lett had returned a fumble inside the Bills’ 5-yard line and was on his way to scoring. Lett started celebrating too early and held the ball out long enough for Beebe, who had made up a considerable distance to get to Lett, to knock it out of his hand. The play resulted in a touchback, not a touchdown, thus stopping Dallas from breaking the record for most points scored by a team in a Super Bowl (55), which was set three years earlier and is still held today by the San Francisco 49ers.
The Bills won the AFC East championship in 1993 with a 12 – 4 record, and again won playoff games against the Los Angeles Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs, setting up a rematch with the Cowboys in Super Bowl XXVIII on January 30th, 1994. The Bills became the only team to play in four straight Super Bowls, and looked ready to finally win one when they led at halftime. A Thurmond Thomas fumbled was returned for a touchdown by James Washington tied the game, with Super Bowl MVP Emmitt Smith taking over the rest of the game for the Cowboys and the Bills were stunned again, 30 – 13.
1994 – 1997: Decline
The four consecutive failures to win the title game, despite a 14 – 2 regular-season record against the NFC, inspired many jokes. Tasker recalled that when he made motivational speeches to groups of children, “invariably, some little guy raises his hand. He goes, ‘Do you know what Bills stands for?’ and I’ve heard it a hundred times. I go, ‘No what?’ He goes “Boy I Love Losing Super Bowls’.” A player denounced the team’s poor reputation: “They still consider us losers. That is the most unfair statement that I’ve ever seen or heard or read in my life.” Andrea Kremer recalled, however, that “I don’t think there’s any doubt in America, that the national fan base, turned their back on the Bills. They’re just tired of it.(22)(23). The Bills would not get a chance to make it five straight in 1994. The team stumbled down the stretch and finished 7 – 9, fourth in the division and out of the playoffs. During this period Tasker established himself year in and year out as the league’s top special-teams performer.
In 1995, Buffalo signed free agent Bryce Paup to anchor the defense. The expansion Carolina Panthers ended up selecting several key Bills contributors (backup quarterback Frank Reich, wide receiver Don Bebee and tight end Pete Metzelaars) in the expansion draft, where they formed the core of that team’s inaugural roster.
The Bills again made the playoffs with a 10 – 6 record, and defeated Miami in the wild card round. They would not get a chance to get back to the Super Bowl – the Pittsburgh Steelers, who went on to advance to the Super Bowl, beat Buffalo in the divisional playoffs 40 – 21.
In 1996, the Bills saw their commanding lead in the AFC East race disappear to a surging New England Patriots team; the Bills won against the Patriots in September, then in late October the Patriots won after three touchdowns were scored in 85 seconds. The Bills still made the playoffs as the Wild Card home team; they became the first victim of the Cinderella Jacksonville Jaguars, the first visiting team ever to win a playoff Rich Stadium. Jim Kelly retired after the season after the Bills management told him they were moving in a new direction and wanted him to help develop a younger QB to take over, signaling an end to the most successful era in Bill history. Thurman Thomas gave way to new running back Antowain Smith. Kelly’s loss was felt in 1997, when his replacement Todd Collins faltered and the Bills stumbled to 6 – 10. Coach Marv Levy retired after the season.
1998 – 2000: Wade Phillips, Doug Flutie, and quarterback controversy
Under new coach Wade Phillips, the Bills signed two quarterbacks for the 1998 season, one that Buffalo traded a high first round pick for, and one that was signed as almost as an afterthought. The former was for Jaguars backup Rob Johnson and the latter was former Heisman Trophy winner and Canadian Football League star Doug Flutie. Despite many Bills fans wanting Flutie to get the starting job, since Flutie looked like the better of the two QB’s in camp and preseason, Phillips named Johnson to the position. The Bills stumbled to begin the season 0 – 3, and after Johnson suffered a rib injury against the Indianapolis Colts, Flutie came in and led the Bills to a playoff spot and a 10 – 6 record. They faltered in their first playoff game against the Miami Dolphins.
Flutie’s popularity continued in the 1999 season, with the Bills finishing 11 – 5, two games behind the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC East standings. Wade Phillips gave Rob Johnson the starting quarterback job in the first-round playoff game against the Tennessee Titans even though Flutie had gotten the Bills into the playoffs. The Bills scored a field goal with 16 seconds left to give them a 16 – 15 lead. But the Titans won the game on a controversial play that became known as the “Music City Miracle”: During the ensuing kickoff, Frank Wycheck lateraled the ball to Kevin Dyson who then scored the winning touchdown. Although Wycheck’s pass was close to an illegal forward lateral, replays were ruled inconclusive and the call on the field was upheld as a touchdown(24). The Titans went on to advance to the Super Bowl.
The Titans game would mark the last appearance by the Bills in the playoffs for the next 18 years. Following the season, the final ties to the Bills’ Super Bowl years were severed when Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed, and Bruce Smith were all cut. Antowain Smith, Eric Moulds, and Marcellus Wiley respectively had long since eclipsed them on the depth chart. In the 2000 season, the team would miss the playoffs following an 8 – 8 year. Both Flutie and Smith were dominant in their final game as Bills, in a 42 – 23 victory over the Seattle Seahawks. Thomas would quickly be replaced by rookie Travis Henry.
After the 2000 season, with the team still caught up in the Johnson vs. Flutie controversy, general manager John Butler departed for the San Diego Chargers – and took Flutie and Wiley with him, among many other Bills contributors. Doug Flutie left the Bills with a .677 winning percentage in 31 starts. Antowain Smith also left as a free agent for the New England Patriots, where he was the starting running back on their first two Super Bowl championship teams.
2001 – 2016: Playoff drought
2001 – 2005: Tom Donahoe and Drew Bledsoe
In 2001, following the departure of John Butler, team owner Ralph Wilson announced his retirement of the organization and handed the reins of his franchise to Tom Donahoe, a former executive of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The move turned out to be disastrous. Donahoe (just a year after the team had released three eventual Hall of Famers in a salary cap move) proceeded to gut the franchise of most of its remaining recognizable talent and replaced it with young, inexperienced players, much of which joined Butler in San Diego that year, and installed Rob Johnson as the starting quarterback. The team went from playoff contenders to a 31 – 49 record during Donahoe’s five-year tenure.
Titans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams took over as head coach for the 2001 season, which proved to be the worst in recent memory for the Bills. Rob Johnson went down in mid-season with an injury Alex Van Pelt took over. Buffalo finished 3 – 13. The Bills even lost a much-hyped mid-season match-up with “Bills West” (the Flutie-led Chargers).
Before the 2002 season, the Bills traded for quarterback Drew Bledsoe, deemed expendable by the Patriots after Tom Brady led them to a Super Bowl victory. Bledsoe revived the Bills for the 2002 season, leading them to an 8 – 8 record, setting 10 team passing records. However, in a tough division with all the other teams finishing 9 – 7, they were still in last place. Another Patriots castoff, safety Lawyer Milloy, who joined the Bills days before the 2003 season began, gave the team an immediate boost on defense (one of multiple defensive additions from 2002 to 2004, including Rams linebacker London Fletcher, Ravens defensive tackle Sam Adams, Bengals linebacker Takeo Spikes, and Eagles cornerback Troy Vincent). After beating eventual champions New England 31 – 0 in the first game, and crushing the Jaguars in their second game, play-by-play announcer Van Miller immediately announced his retirement as of the end of the season, expecting the team to have a shot at the title. However, the Bills stumbled through the rest of the season, finishing 6 – 10. In fact, their season had ended the exact opposite of the beginning as they were trounced by New England 31 – 0. In one game, however, the Bills fans gained a small measure of satisfaction when the defense sacked Rob Johnson multiple times in his relief effort for the Washington Redskins. Bledsoe’s eventual successor was one of several unsuccessful Bills quarterbacks in the 2000s. Gregg Williams was fired as head coach after the 2003 season and replaced with Mike Mularkey. The Bills also drafted another quarterback, J.P. Losman, to be used if Bledsoe struggled in 2004. Unfortunately, Losman broke his leg in the pre-season and missed most of the regular season, seeing very limited action.
Bledsoe continued to struggle in 2004. The Bills started the 2004 season 0 – 4, with Bledsoe and his offense struggling in their run-first offense, averaging only 13 points per game. Additionally, each loss was heartbreakingly close. The team finally managed to turn things around with a victory at home against the also winless Miami Dolphins. This, along with the emergence of Willis McGahee (a first-round pick and a gamble by the Bills due to the knee injury that McGahee suffered in his last college game) taking over the starting running back role from Travis Henry, and the emergence of Lee Evans to give the Bills a second deep threat, sparked the Bills to go 9 – 2 in their next eleven games. This string of victories allowed the Bills to be in the hunt for a final AFC wildcard playoff spot. Though they would lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the season's final game, costing them a playoff berth and devastating the fans, the late-season surge gave them a positive position to approach 2005.
After the 2004 season, wanting to go in a younger direction and unhappy with Drew Bledsoe’s overall performance, the Bills decided to hand the starting quarterback reins to J.P. Losman. This angered Bledsoe, who demanded his release, which the Bills granted. Bledsoe then signed with the Dallas Cowboys, reuniting him with his former New England Patriots coach Bill Parcells(25).
Losman’s development did not proceed as quickly as the Bills had hoped it would. He began the 2005 season 1 – 3 as a starter prompting Kelly Holcomb to replace him. Losman would not see action again until Holcomb was injured in week 10 against the Kansas City Chiefs. He led the Bills to a win that game, but would again be replaced by Holcomb after losing the next several games. Perhaps the low point of Losman’s season was a 24 – 23 loss to the Miami Dolphins, a game in which Buffalo led 21 – 0 and 23 – 3, but gave up 21 unanswered points in the 4th quarter. Buffalo’s 2005 campaign resulted in a 5 – 22 record and the firing of General Manager Tom Donahoe in January 2006. That same month, Mike Mularkey resigned as head coach, citing family reasons along with disagreement over the direction of the organization.
2006 – 2009: Marv Levy’s return, Russ Brandon, and Dick Jauron
Marv Levy was named as Donahoe’s replacement in January 2006, with hopes that he would improve a franchise that failed to make the playoffs during Donahoe’s tenure. Meanwhile, Russ Brandon was named to a high-level executive position as director of non-football operations alongside Levy. Dick Jauron was hired as head coach.
The 2006 and 2007 seasons both brought 7 – 9 records under Jauron’s coaching, having been eliminated from playoff contention in December in both years. 2006 saw the additions of Donte Whitner, Ko Simpson, Ashton Youboty, Anthony Hargrove, and Kyle Williams to the defense corps while 2007 brought Trent Edwards to quarterback the offense, rookie first-round draft pick Marshawn Lynch, second-round pick Paul Posluszny, offensive linemen Derrick Dockery and Langston Walker. And backup running back Fred Jackson. J.P. Losman played all 16 games in 2006 but was benched in early 2007 in favor of Edwards. At the end of the 2007 season, Levy retired once again, citing the fact that he had reached the end of his two-year contract. Brandon assumed responsibilities as de facto general manager for the next two years.
In a notable move, Toronto, Ontario would host one Bills game each year beginning in 2008, as league officials approved an October 2007 proposal by Bills owner Ralph Wilson to lease his team to Canadian media mogul Edward S. “Ted” Rogers Jr. to play an annual regular season game and a biennial preseason game in Toronto’s Rogers Centre over the next five years, in exchange for a sum of C$78 million cash. The games, formally named the “Bills Toronto Series,” began during the 2008 season. This led to speculation of the team eventually moving across the border to Toronto over the next few years(26).
The Bills started extremely well in the 2008 season, starting out with a 5 – 1 record before their bye week and showing promise in Trent Edwards as finally being a capable quarterback for the Bills. Notable additions to the roster had included free agent defensive tackle Marcus Stroud and draft picks cornerback Leodis McKelvin and wide receiver James Hardy. However, Edwards suffered a concussion from a brutal hit in a game against the Arizona Cardinals. The team then went 2 – 8 in their last games, earning them another 7 – 9, record.
In 2009 the Bills acquired veteran wide receiver Terrell Owens on a one-year deal. Owens was infamous for his elaborate touchdown celebrations and controversies with past teammates despite being a superstar player. In addition, former quarterback J.P. Losman, by this point relegated to third string behind Trent Edwards and Gibran Hamdan, was allowed to become a free agent. In the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft, the Bills selected defensive end/linebacker Aaron Maybin with the 11th overall pick and center Eric Wood with the 28th overall pick; Wood would become a Pro Bowler and remain with the team for nine seasons while Maybin never recorded a sack with the Bills and was cut after two disappointing seasons.
As the 2009 season began, the team stumbled to a 3 – 6 start, after which the Bills fired head coach Dick Jauron midseason. The offensive line suffered from severe turnover and Terrell Owens proved to disappoint, with Owens’ overall stats for 2009 being modest: 829 yards and five TDs. The season opener against New England was a loss, although Buffalo’s morale was raised by the fact that it was only a single point. Other notable games include a 16 – 13 OT victory over the Jets in week 6, and the week 10 game against Tennessee, where Titans owner Bud Adams made an obscene gesture at Bills fans and was fined $250,000. The week 13 game against the Jets was an international series game held across the border in Toronto. In week 15, the Bills hosted New England, but despite optimistic predictions, fell 17 – 10, marking the fifth season in a row where they lost both games against the Patriots. This eliminated Buffalo from playoff contention and marked their tenth consecutive season without a playoff appearance.
Quarterback Trent Edwards battled injury throughout the whole season with his play regressing throughout the weeks, splitting games with back-up Ryan Fitzpatrick, former of the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bills were hit with another hard blow when star running back Marshawn Lynch was given a three-game suspension by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for pleading guilty to misdemeanor weapons charges. Though backup running back Fred Jackson did quite well in Lynch’s absence, his performance then hindered on Lynch’s return but he still had a 1,000-yard rushing season. However, the performance of free safety Jarius Byrd showed extreme promise as Byrd led the NFL with 9 interceptions and was selected to the Pro Bowl.
2010 – 2012: Buddy Nix, Chan Gailey, and Ryan Fitzpatrick
Buddy Nix, a former assistant general manager of the San Diego Chargers, was named general manager in the final week of the 2009 season. One of his first personnel moves was to cut ties with Owens (ironically, a man he had recruited during his time in college football). With the expiration of Terrell Owens’ contract in March 2010, the Bills chose not to re-sign him. Meanwhile, on January 20th, the team named Chan Gailey as head coach. Gailey was previously the offensive coordinator of Kansas City and head coach of Georgia Tech and the Dallas Cowboys, going 8 – 0 in the division in 1998, and leading the team to the postseason in both 1998 and 1999.
As the 2010 season began, the Bills lost to Miami at home. After going 0 – 4, the Bills released Trent Edwards and named Ryan Fitzpatrick starting quarterback. Despite some close games, they ended up at a 0 – 8 record before beating Detroit at home in week 10. Then came a 49 – 31 win in Cincinnati and an OT loss to Pittsburgh. The team finished 2010 with a 4 – 12 record. As a result of the Bills’ poor play in 2010, the team earned the third overall selection in the 2011 NFL Draft, using it to select defensive tackle Marcell Dareus to improve the team’s long-struggling run defense. The Bills fired Tom Modrak, one of the last connections to the Donahoe era, shortly after the 2011 draft.
Buffalo had an excellent start to 2011, routing Kansas City 41 – 7. The following week, they hosted Oakland and erased a 21 – 3 deficit, winning 38 – 35. In week 3, the Bills hosted the Patriots; they erased a 21 – 0 Patriots lead and led 31 – 24 in the fourth; a late Tom Brady touchdown tied the game, but the Bills whipped into range of a last-second field goal. The 34 – 31, win ended a 15-game franchise losing streak spanning 8 years to the Patriots. Despite starting the 2011 season with a 5 – 2 record, leading the AFC East for several weeks, a wave of injuries to several key starters led to the Bills compiling a 7-game losing streak, pushing the team out of playoff contention for the twelfth straight year. The losing streak was finally broken with a defeat of the Tim Tebow-led Denver Broncos on Christmas Eve, in a game that had unusually poor attendance. With the Detroit Lions making the playoffs for the first time since 1999 that same season, the Bills held the longest postseason drought in the NFL.
On March 15th, 2012, defensive end and former first-overall pick Mario Williams, formerly of the Houston Texans, signed a six-year contract with the Bills worth up to $100 million ($49.5 million guaranteed), which made it the most lucrative contract for a defensive player in NFL history at the time(27). Unfortunately, it was not enough to prevent another disappointing season in 2012 in which the Bills finished 6 – 10 again. Following the season, the Bills relieved Chan Gailey and his entire coaching staff of their duties(28). While Gailey reinvigorated the Bills offense, his teams were undone by poor defensive play, in contrast to bad offense but decent defense under the Juron years(29).
Part 3 of the Buffalo Bills article will
be posted on October 25, 2024
