The Kansas City Chiefs have been to the Super Bowl in five of the last six seasons. Their lone whiff was an AFC Championship Game loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in 2021. Patrick Mahomes has won three Super Bowl MVPs in that span, spearheading one of the greatest dynasties in NFL history.
So what gives with the latest quote from Buffalo Bills GM Brandon Beane? Buffalo has been eliminated in the postseason by none other than Kansas City in four of its last five appearances. The lone exception, coincidentally, was a divisional round loss to the Bengals in 2023.
The Chiefs are clearly the primary obstacle to Buffalo's Super Bowl dreams. Josh Allen might be the most valuable player in the NFL right now, but the roster around him consistently crumbles when Kansas City comes to town in the playoffs. Beane, howeverr, does not think the Bills need to focus on building their roster to combat the Chiefs.
Brandon Beane doesn't think Bills need to focus roster strategy on Chiefs
When Josh Allen was called the Charles Barkley to Patrick Mahomes' Michael Jordan, Beane said the Bills are close the mountaintop — but also that there's more to constructing a winner than targeting a single franchise.
"It's a great analogy," Beane told reporters (h/t CBS Sports). "We just have to keep moving forward to keep trying to get there. It's a play here or a play there. We're close. But we can't just prepare the team to beat the Chiefs. There are a lot of good teams in the AFC. I don't think we're far away. We just have to make a stop here or there. We haven't made the stop when we needed to make them. We feel like we've upgraded our defense for that reason. We have to get the key stops."
While there is logic to this quote — there are other formidable contenders in the AFC — Beane might be off the mark just a little bit. Buffalo has proven that it can beat the likes of Baltimore, Cincinnati and Houston. But year in and year out, the Chiefs continue to foil them. You can credibly proclaim Buffalo as the second-best team in the AFC, but its Chiefs demons remain far from exorcised.
Maybe the Bills should build their roster with Chiefs in mind
While Beane is not suggesting that Buffalo does not take the Chiefs roster into consideration at all, he's clear in the fact that it's not his No. 1 priority. But maybe it should be? It stands to reason that a team built to topple Kansas City — to exploit weaknesses in the O-line and smother a weak wide receiver room — can also beat other teams. Just look at the Eagles, a roster constructed damn near perfectly to mitigate Kansas City's unique strengths with Mahomes at the command.
A lot of this is luck or fate. Kansas City has been there and done that. There is a clear psychological edge at this point, which Buffalo can't fix with a couple savvy roster tweaks. But if the Bills were to focus on improving where the Chiefs are weakest, their odds of winning the AFC and finally getting Josh Allen to the Super Bowl skyrocket. It's a simple fact.
Buffalo needs to account for the Baltimores of the world, but Kansas City is the AFC's gold standard until proven otherwise. So maybe, just maybe, Beane needs to amend his comments.