Looking back on our Buffalo Bills season predictions

The day the 2017 Buffalo Bills season kicked off, some of the Rumblings staff put out an article predicting the final record for Buffalo.

Our sentiments echoed that of much of the press corps and fans alike. We weren’t too optimistic about the teams chances of making the playoffs, or even be very good. Of the six staff members who predicted the season, only one predicted a winning record. None of our staff predicted that this team would end the 17-year playoff drought.

In our staff predictions the Bills averaged 6.7 wins in the 2017 campaign. Most of the reasoning for that was the massive roster overhaul, head coaching inexperience and difficult schedule ahead of the team.

In my prediction I was bold:

“Let’s face reality for a second: the Bills are not going to the playoffs this season.”

The overall sentiment of everybody covering the team was that the team wasn’t necessarily tanking, but definitely had an eye to the future. In many ways, I still believe that’s true. However, head coach Sean McDermott was able to get his team to buy in to the process and win games nobody thought they could.

Dylan Zadonowicz: 6-10
John Boccacino: 8-8
Dan Lavoie: 5-11
Josh Rawdin: 5 - 11
Will Kennedy: 7-9
Anthony Marino: 9-7
Matt Warren: 6-10

Questions still surround the Bills moving forward [quarterback, linebackers, offensive coordinator etc]. But 2017 was the right first step in the direction of sustained success, especially with the reports out of Foxborough that the Evil Empire seems to be falling apart (if you choose to believe that kind of stuff).