If there were ever a time for the Buffalo Bills to finally play in a Super Bowl in the Josh Allen era, it would probably be in 2026. Entering Monday night's road game against the Minnesota Vikings, the Bills are sitting pretty. They're atop the AFC standings, Josh Allen looks like an MVP, and they keep making timely plays in all phases to win games.
However, that could have been generally said of any Bills team this decade. Even with an improved pass rush led by Greg Rousseau, Buffalo still has a bottom-tier defense that feels exceedingly vulnerable. In an AFC playoff field likely to feature quarterbacks like Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence, and Patrick Mahomes, among others, this flawed defense could be an Achilles heel that ultimately keeps the Bills from
playing in February's Big Game.
That behooves the Bills to get aggressive and patch some holes before Tuesday's NFL trade deadline, especially in their secondary. But will general manager Brandon Beane get aggressive and push his chips in to finally get more defensive help for the best Bills player (Allen) in almost two generations?
Per a conversation with The Buffalo News' Jay Skurski, it sounds like Beane is waiting until after the Vikings' game to really initiate any potential final trade conversations with teams who could give the Bills some much-needed defensive help:
More from The Buffalo News:
“Knowing that you may have one bullet, some teams are still undecided whether they're going to do something,” he [Beane] said. “You're weighing that, ‘Do I fire a bullet on this guy, knowing this guy could come available?’ … You're trying to have those conversations and weigh how teams are responding – ‘Absolutely, win or lose this week, we're not doing it,' or. ‘Let's circle back after the game and see where things stand.’”
Beane's Bills won't have much time to make a move if an opportunity that they like opens up after Monday night's game. Tuesday's NFL trade deadline is at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time. We'll see how the Bills view themselves and their current contender situation soon enough.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Will the Bills make a defensive addition before NFL trade deadline?
