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Monday morning can be cruel. The Monday after the AFC title game, at least for Bills quarterback Josh Allen and head coach Sean McDermott, feels crueler than most. The weather is frigid, the hot takes are scorching and Buffalo is forced to beat on, Bills against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Allen is a Hall of Fame quarterback, yet he's never won an MVP (we'll see if that changes) and he's never been to the Super Bowl (that won't, at least not this year), almost entirely because of the existence of Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid. For the non-Gatsby fans in the crowd, perhaps a more modern reference will explain just what it's like for the Bills to keep losing against the Chiefs in the playoffs:
That's four playoff losses for Allen and the Bills to Mahomes and the Chiefs. They've all been close losses, but they're still all losses. Before this season's epic matchup, the narrative was already built. It's only going to get louder. And you're going to hear a lot of people questioning whether Allen can win the big one, and -- even worse -- plenty of sports shriekers talking about Buffalo needing to move on from McDermott.
The same surface-level clowns will tell you Lamar Jackson and Jim Harbaugh can't win the big one. It's a narrative-driven way to drive interest at a high-profile time for NFL games, but the reality is basing wide-ranging opinions on what amounts to a few huge plays in a really close game is an outrageous exercise.
Mahomes is now one of three quarterbacks to ever appear in five Super Bowls, joining Tom Brady (10) and John Elway (five as well). Brady's fifth Super Bowl appearance came in 2010 at the age of 34. Elway's came in his final season, 1998, at the age of 38. Mahomes is 29! He's been to the Super Bowl more times in his career than he has not.
As much as I loved to beat the drum of "the Bills are the Bulls and it's time to take down the Pistons," the problem is Mahomes may just be the Michael Jordan of football. Maybe that makes Allen the Charles Barkley of the AFC (not a bad thing, unless you like winning rings). Mahomes is prime Tiger Woods and poor Josh Allen might be Phil Mickelson (without the ability to win a title four times individually four times a year).
Or maybe it's just simpler: Mahomes is the new Brady. I've said for several years now the Chiefs are the new Patriots and Sunday night was just another example of it. Grind your way through the regular season however you have to, pile up wins wherever and however you can, be it with clutch quarterback play, coaching edges or even conjuring up some kind of Beelzebubian warlock magic. Get the No. 1 seed, secure the bye and home-field advantage and force the other good teams with MVP-caliber quarterbacks to not only play each other first but then have to come to Arrowhead where no matter the spread and no matter the opponent, the margins will be razor thin.
It's a harsh reality, but it is reality. Mahomes and Andy Reid are not going anywhere. Mahomes probably has stone-cold minimum 10 years left playing quarterback at a high level. Reid is 66, which would have been considered old a decade ago for an NFL coach, but Pete Carroll is 73 and just got hired to come back and coach the Raiders. Reid's got a decade left of this, easy, if he wants to keep going. And why wouldn't he? The Chiefs are building the greatest dynasty ever, mimicking the Patriots process (best QB, best coach, excellent assistants, rotating through critical offensive players and finding defensive stalwarts who can change the game) while somehow staying ahead of the incredible pace Bill Belichick and Brady built in New England.
So what do the Bills do in the face of this monstrous impossibility that is battling the Chiefs? What you don't do is fire McDermott. The former Reid protege -- he was fired as defensive coordinator after replacing Jim Johnson, a mistake Reid would probably rectify if he could turn back the clock -- is now 86-45 in the regular season after winning 13 games and a fifth straight AFC East title in 2024. McDermott is only 7-7 in the playoffs, which isn't great, but when you look at the losses, it's a lot easer to stomach in terms of his team's performance.
In Year 1, McDermott's Bills made the playoffs as a paper tiger and fell short. No big deal. They missed in Year 2, but got back in Year 3 before losing in overtime on the road against the Texans and Deshaun Watson, when he was good. In Year 4, the Bills made the AFC title game in Kansas City before losing to the Chiefs by 14 points. Not ideal, but it is what it is. In Year 5, the Bills lost to the Chiefs on the road in overtime in the infamous 13 Seconds game, which certainly lingers on McDermott's legacy, but they had the Chiefs beat for 90 percent of the game. In Year 6, they lost to the Bengals during the very bizarre Damar Hamlin season. In Year 7 (2023), they lost by three at home to the Chiefs in the divisional round. And this year, they again fell by three to the Chiefs, this time on the road.
Losing isn't good but we're talking like three or four bounces TOTAL from the Bills being like 3-1 against the Chiefs and completely flipping the narrative.
Only a fool would want to blow up everything over the random luck of football and the problem that is Mahomes popping up several times in key moments in the playoffs. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence would argue instead the Bills were bigger victims to their own injuries; put Taylor Rapp and Christian Benford on the field for the full game against Kansas City and the Bills probably emerge victorious this year and end the narrative.
The Bills will likely be back here next year, thanks to having Allen on the roster and a wealth of talent assembled. Rebooting everything right now would be an asinine move. Allen and McDermott's success over the last five years is virtually unmatched. They just happen to be in the NFL at the exact same time as the one team who can match it.
