The Buffalo Bills offensive formational tendency in 2025 was straight out of an Avengers movie: perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
Buffalo utilized a 2×2 offensive formation (two eligible receivers to the left of the left tackle, two eligible receivers to the right of the right tackle) on 40.67% of their regular season offensive plays last season, per SumerSports. That represented the plurality of all of their 1082 charted plays. They utilized 1×3 and 3×1 formations combined on 33.54% of their offensive plays. This
was the 23rd and 31st highest rate in the NFL, respectively, for those formations.
Although the Bills have retained a man notably responsible for the offensive design in former offensive coordinator and now head coach Joe Brady, there are two main changes from last year to this year that should make this specific phenomenon one worth keeping an eye on: the departure of former head coach Sean McDermott and the arrival of wide receiver DJ Moore.
We’ll never know exactly how much influence McDermott had on the offensive design for sure. He was the head coach, so his hand was at least partially in all aspects of the team, but was he primarily concerned with situational play calling and run/pass ratio, or did the balanced v unbalanced philosophy also get his input and/or direction? We do, however, know Moore represents the truest X receiver the Bills have had since the departure of former #1 wide receiver and current free agent Stefon Diggs. Teams can be more hesitant to run unbalanced formations without a player isolated on the backside they believe can win one-on-ones, particularly in the intermediate and deep parts of the field. In unbalanced 3×1 or 1×3 formations, teams frequently start the progression on the front side route combination before coming back across the formation to a backside dig. Not having an X receiver they trust to win on the horizontal intermediate plan could make a team less inclined to run those formations.
Despite the Buffalo passing attack once again being a top unit in 2025, even the most ardent Bills personnel defender would likely agree that the team didn’t have a high-quality true X perimeter receiver who could be consistently counted on to fill the role mentioned above. The team was likely hoping Keon Coleman would evolve into that type of player, but going into 2026, they don’t have to hope on that anymore. Moore likely slots into that role from the jump, although he’ll certainly be used across the formation as well.
Joe Brady has openly called himself a “Sean Payton disciple”, and as a point of reference, the Denver Broncos ran unbalanced formations 40.02% of the time in 2025. Will the Bills reach a 40% threshold and see a noteworthy uptick in 2026? It’ll be something worth keeping an eye on as the season progresses and we see both Brady and Moore put their stamps on the offense.
…and that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I’m Bruce Nolan with Buffalo Rumblings. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @BruceExclusive and look for new episodes of “The Bruce Exclusive” every Thursday on the Rumblings Cast Network — see more in my LinkTree!
