The Buffalo Bills’ Week 9 win over the Kansas City Chiefs was a big deal, despite what Chiefs Kingdom and smarmy talking heads will say to the contrary. Sure, the Bills have yet to win a postseason game
against Kansas City, but what unfolded last Sunday may have major implications for the 2025 NFL playoffs.
It’s officially true that a lot of folks writing this material don’t believe that Buffalo has what it takes to beat the Chiefs in January. A fair amount spent their entire blurb talking about it, essentially or directly claiming that the Week 9 win won’t mean squat in time. You see, the thing is that there’s no guarantee the Chiefs make it to the postseason after losing to Buffalo and dropping to 5-4. They’re sure to be motivated off their Week 10 bye, but the same can be said of the Bills.
As it pertains to Week 10 NFL power rankings, there are some real head-scratchers included below. Let’s unofficially title this week’s material as “Put some @#$%ing effort into it, and see yourself out,” especially you, Mike Florio.
This is the last week I’m including Florio’s “contribution” with Pro Football Talk — but I’m not giving his corporate overlords nor him the financial windfall or personal satisfaction found in direct links to the latest offering. It’s awful. He’s clearly not trying.
In this day and age where Ai is a real threat to those of us who toil away professionally over words and copy, well… there’s no room for such a lazy effort. If, for some reason, you enjoy Florio’s weekly inanity, you’ll have to look for it on your own in the future.
Elsewhere among our galley of power rankings producers, it may be time to wave goodbye to content from Sports Illustrated soon if they can’t or won’t attend to obvious website issues. Each click unto their spidery web crawl almost renders even the best processors overloaded with advertising spam. This isn’t how you handle websites in 2025. Related, nothing was available from “On Si” as of publishing, so we’ll have to live without Ralph Ventre’s quips this week.
I’m also trying to figure out where Glenn Clark was going with his latest musings on Bills-Chiefs, after putting Buffalo all the way at one. He’s officially entered “the list” here as a source who may drop off in the coming weeks. You’ll see what I mean below.
Perhaps the strangest ranking is found with FanDuel Research, an outlet that uses data and other complicated measures in its hierarchy table. The Bills improved over the prior week in every way, yet — well, just check it out below.
First here, as always this season, let’s check in with the latest ESPN playoff odds for the Bills in four key metrics. Buffalo continues it climb back up the chart, and now they’re all the way back in first place — ahead of every other team in the AFC. The Chiefs dropped all the way down to six and off our screen grab, which means I had to outsmart the “scrollbots” to share it here, below.
Entering Week 10, the Bills’ odds of making the playoffs once again improved, now up to 96% (was 88%); their odds of winning the division increased to 59% (was 51%). As for earning a playoff bye, Buffalo’s odds increased to 30% (was 14%), while the Bills’ odds of making it to the Super Bowl also jumped to 20% (was 14%).
Now, let’s live in the present and dive into the latest NFL power rankings, passing the mic to hierarchy experts around the country (a few notwithstanding). Ready?
(Week 9 Power Rankings for comparison)
ESPN: 1 (up from 4 in Week 9)
“Most important game remaining: Week 15 at the Patriots”
“The Bills are trying to win a sixth straight AFC East title, but they have significant competition to reach that goal. After the Patriots took the first meeting, this matchup could end up being huge as the Bills look to secure at least one more postseason game in their last year at Highmark Stadium. Winning the division is always emphasized by Buffalo coach Sean McDermott as the first step to reaching the Super Bowl, and this game could prove pivotal.” — Alaina Getzenberg
NFL.com: 4 (up from 9 in Week 9)
“The Bills’ defense turned in its most important showing of the season in the 28-21 win over the Chiefs, while the offense hit most of the right notes in yet another crucial victory over an AFC heavyweight. New England remains ahead of Buffalo in the division, and we have to wait more than a month for the rematch, but the Bills can take the AFC East again if they continue playing at their post-bye level. The defensive injuries keep mounting, with Michael Hoecht (torn Achilles) joining Ed Oliver (torn bicep) as key recent losses. But rookie CB Maxwell Hairston stepped up with a big, late interception against Kansas City, and second-year safety Cole Bishop enjoyed one of his best NFL games. The Bills haven’t suddenly fixed all of their issues, and there are some tough opponents upcoming, but this was a massive victory for a number of reasons.” — Eric Edholm
Pro Football Focus: 1 (up from 4 in Week 9)
“Chance of making playoffs: 97%”
“Chance of winning Super Bowl: 16%%”
“The Bills looked the part in a heavyweight fight against the Chiefs on Sunday, defeating their rivals 28-21 to move to 6-2 on the season. The offense appeared as competent as ever, rolling to 404 yards and scoring four touchdowns in the win. Buffalo’s running game was efficient, and the team also created explosives in the passing game. On the defensive side of the ball — where there have been some questions — the Bills stopped a Chiefs offense that has played incredible football in recent weeks. A huge scalp.” — Thomas Valentine
The Athletic: 3 (up from 10 in Week 9)
“Midseason grade: A-”
“Their consecutive losses in October feel like ancient history after throttling the Panthers and dispatching Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. The defense still needs to be better against the run, but the Bills are rounding into form as we head into the second half.” — Chad Graff/Josh Kendall
CBS Sports: 2 (up from 10 in Week 9)
“Beating the Chiefs behind a strong defensive showing is a good sign for the future. That defense will ultimately decide whether this is a Super Bowl team.” — Pete Prisco
Sports Illustrated: 2 (up from 8 in Week 9)
“The Bills are the only team in the NFL with a higher percentage of run plays than pass plays. Anyone who is complaining about Josh Allen preserving even a little bit of himself for the stretch run is out of their minds. What Joe Brady has accomplished as offensive coordinator is the materialization of years of work in getting Allen to a more sustainable place.” — Conor Orr
On SI: (no content available as of publishing)
this space for rent in Week 10
Pro Football Talk: 10 (up from 11 in Week 9)
“Their best bet for winning a playoff rematch against the Chiefs could be to hope someone else knocks them out first.” — Mike Florio
USA Today: 7 (up from 10 in Week 9)
“They beat the dynastic Chiefs. In the regular season. Again. Yawn − unless this becomes the game that tiebreakers K.C. home after Week 18.” — Nate Davis
FOX Sports: 4 (up from 7 in Week 9)
“Their win over a strong, still-dangerous Chiefs team was their best win and performance of the season. Of course, they always beat the Chiefs in the regular season. See you both in January.” — Ralph Vacchiano
Tom Brady’s FOX take: 2 (down from 1 in Week 9)
“At No. 2, I’m still looking into the data, but it seems like, yup, somebody might be circling the wagons. Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, they’re finding their groove and they came away with a huge home win against [Patrick] Mahomes and the Chiefs. The question is, can you do it again in January? It just feels inevitable that we’re going to see this game again.” — Tom Brady
Pressbox: 1 (up from 10 in Week 9)
“Let’s turn to CBS color analyst Tony Romo for some hard hitting analysis …” — Glenn Clark
Bleacher Report: 3 (up from 7 in Week 9)
“The Bills have been here before. They have beaten the Chiefs during the regular season in four straight years. The previous outcomes helped lead Buffalo to the postseason.
While there, however, the Chiefs got their revenge on three different occasions.
Sunday’s performance was impressive. It shouldn’t be taken as anything more than a good outing, because history tells everyone it doesn’t translate.
The Bills must slay the dragon in the postseason before these regular-season victories are viewed as something more than they currently are. ” — Brent Sobleski
Sportsnaut: 1 (up from 7 in Week 9)
“Just an excellent performance by the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. James Cook continues to perform like an All-Pro this season, and Josh Allen was nearly perfect through the air. But what really stood out today was how well this defense performed against an offense that looked unstoppable coming into Week 9. We know Buffalo’s history versus Kansas City in the regular season versus playoffs; that doesn’t matter right now. What does matter is that the Bills looked like the best team in the NFL for the first time since September.” — Matt Johnson
The Sporting News: 2 (up from 5 in Week 9)
“The Bills flexed again with Josh Allen and James Cook taking over the Chiefs, limiting the chances of a comeback. Buffalo is getting hot again at the right time.” — Vinnie Iyer
New York Post: 1 (up from 5 in Week 9)
“Josh Allen accounted for three touchdowns, James Cook ran for 114 yards, and the defense sacked Patrick Mahomes three times and hit him 15 others in a 28-21 victory. Maxwell Hairston batted down a pass with 17 seconds remaining to seal the win so that a missed field goal didn’t matter. Allen completed a team single-game record 88.5 percent of his passes.” — Ryan Dunleavy
Yahoo! Sports: 2 (up from 5 in Week 9)
“Defensive end Michael Hoecht’s Achilles injury doesn’t help the Bills. They’re getting thin up front. Quality defensive linemen aren’t plentiful or cheap in the trade market, but Buffalo has to try to get at least one. That’s becoming a soft spot.” — Frank Schwab
NFL Spin Zone: 8 (up from 11 in Week 9)
“The Buffalo Bills again beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the regular season, but they tend to not beat them when the playoffs roll around. I will say this, though, both Buffalo and KC are each not leading their divisions at the moment, so that’s a thing…” — Lou Scataglia
FanDuel Research: 2 (unchanged Week 9)
(All NFL odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook.)
“The Kansas City Chiefs were rated high enough coming into the week that even a road loss to the Buffalo Bills couldn’t take them down from the top spot in our rankings.” — Annie Nader
“The Rich Eisen Show”: 6 (up from 9 in Week 9)
Computer Cowboy (Ben Baldwin): 5 (no change from Week 9)
That’s it for another week of the always scientifically correct and never indisputable world of NFL power rankings. What’s your take on the latest Bills rankings?
