How the Buffalo Bills Have Quietly Improved Roster This Offseason
The best sportsbooks have the Buffalo Bills as a Top 3 Super Bowl favourite, and early reports about the potential impact of rookie tight end Dalton Kincaid is one of the emerging factors that give credence to that.
BetMGM Sportsbook has the Bills at 9.00 to win the Super Bowl, following the defending champ Kansas City Chiefs at 7.50 and the Philadelphia Eagles at 8.00.
The Bills are at 5.00 to win the AFC, behind the Chiefs at 4.50, and are the favourites to win the AFC East, at 2.30, ahead of the New York Jets (3.50).
Buffalo Bills Focused on Improving the Offence
The offence in Buffalo looked out-of-sorts, to say the least, in their AFC Divisional Round loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in the Buffalo snow last December. So the Bills will move more towards using 12 personnel this upcoming season – two tight ends and two receivers.
Buffalo’s starting tight end, Dawson Knox, caught 97 passes for 1,104 yards, and 15 touchdowns, over the past two seasons.
Early reports out of Bills camp indicate Kincaid is everything the Bills thought they were getting when they drafted him out of Utah at No. 25 overall – 6-foot-4, 240 pounds, great hands, savvy route runner, tough blocker, ruthless after the catch. NFL betting odds are showing Kincaid as 46.00 to win Rookie of the Year.
Bills DE Von Miller took a look and called Kincaid, “insane.” QB Josh Allen is reportedly “very happy” with Kincaid so far.
Stefon Diggs and Gabriel Davis are the Bills’ top wide receivers. And we’re getting a sense that the Diggs’ pre-minicamp drama has been resolved. He has been given more of a say in the offence, and if that’s the case having a mercurial talent like Diggs happier and more unleashed spells more trouble for the AFC East.
Beefing up the lines was important this off-season, and that’s where they focused a lot of the budget – signing proven guards Connor McGovern and David Edwards and using two draft picks on O’Cyrus Torrence and Nick Broeker.
Then they brought size to the running back position by bringing in two experienced inside runners – Damien Harris and Latavius Murray – to take short-game running responsibility off of the 6-5, 237-pound Allen, who ran for 762 yards last season.
How These Changes Have Helped the Bills' Odds
A lot of it is going to come down to offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey’s ability to reign all this in and squeeze the most out of it in his second year on the job.
NorthStar Bets has the number of games won for the Bills (excluding playoffs) at Over 10.5 at 1.63, Under 10.5 at 2.28.
The Bills have been very quietly improving their team this off-season, in light of some splashier additions elsewhere in the AFC East, led by QB Aaron Rodgers going to the Jets.
With the Bills’ 13 wins last year, that Over bet looks pretty safe to us.
