National Football League

Where do Josh Allen, Bills go from here after another devastating loss to Chiefs?

Updated Jan. 26, 2025 11:13 p.m. ET

The Bills remain at a frustrating level of football limbo: consistently a great team in the regular season, but just as consistently unable to get past the Chiefs in the playoffs.

Sunday's 32-29 defeat in the AFC Championship Game marked the fourth time in five years that Buffalo has lost to Kansas City in the playoffs, with three of those four losses coming at Arrowhead Stadium. Buffalo is 61-22 since the start of 2020 — the Chiefs are the only team with more wins in that span — but the Bills haven't been able to get even a Super Bowl appearance out of that run. Over those five years, they're 0-4 in the playoffs against the Chiefs and 7-0 against everyone else.

So the story will be the same: How can Buffalo and Josh Allen get past Kansas City and Patrick Mahomes? The Bills have been able to beat the Chiefs in the regular season, but they can't do it when it matters most. They've been painfully close — a tie game in the fourth quarter Sunday, a lead in the fourth quarter in each of the previous two seasons, losing 27-24 last year and 42-36 in overtime in the playoffs after the 2022 season.

Buffalo has won five straight division titles, owning the AFC East since Tom Brady left the Patriots, but that success has fallen short of the Super Bowl. The Bills have won 48 regular-season games in the past four years, and when they went to four straight Super Bowls from 1990-93, they won 49 over that four-year span.

So, next season will again be a mere preface to the inevitable collision with the Chiefs in January. Can Buffalo win enough games to secure the AFC's top seed, so that showdown takes place in Buffalo and not in Kansas City? Until he beats the Chiefs and gets to a Super Bowl, Allen's legacy with Buffalo will be one spent entirely in Mahomes' shadow.

As they try again in 2025, the Bills will also have a surplus of draft picks, which should allow them to either draft a deep class of rookies or package picks to move up as they want. They have an extra second-round pick from trading receiver Stefon Diggs to the Texans, extra picks in the fourth- and sixth-round picks from other trades, and two compensatory draft picks, both likely after the fifth round, for losing two free agents last year in receiver Gabe Davis and edge rusher Leonard Floyd.

They'll need to lean on the draft for impact because they're unlikely to have a ton of cap space for substantial signings in free agency. They're over the projected 2025 salary cap right now, but can restructure contracts and cut or trade players to create additional cap space.

As for their own free agents, there are only two that should be expensive to keep: receiver Amari Cooper, who was acquired from the Browns at midseason, and cornerback Rasul Douglas. Safety Damar Hamlin is also a free agent, as is receiver Mack Hollins, who had a touchdown in Sunday's game. Running back James Cook, who led the NFL with 16 rushing touchdowns this past season, is entering the final year of his rookie contract and is now eligible for a lucrative extension.

The Bills will again have to face a first-place schedule — both Super Bowl teams, the Chiefs and Eagles, will play in Buffalo in the regular season. But the schedule also gives the Bills an easy division in the NFC South, a potential four-game sweep, though they'll face a tough division likely with multiple playoff teams in the AFC North.

Buffalo has won at least 11 games five years in a row, a rare sustained level of regular-season success, but until the Bills can find the same kind of winning in January, the franchise will continue to fall short of that elusive first Super Bowl championship. Not so long ago, this franchise had gone 25 years without a single playoff win before it got one in 2020.

But at this point, that won't ease the pain of the team's loyal fans, especially watching the Chiefs go to the Super Bowl year after year.

Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.

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