Three preseason games are in the books, and one thing is clear to me: this Bills team is winning double-digit games. The real question is where in that range they land, 10, 13, maybe 14, and that’s exactly where this new coaching staff, Joe Brady and Jim Leonard leading the way, gets defined this season.
My number: high end of the 10-to-13 range. Here’s why.
One: the depth is real, and we saw it with our own eyes. From day one of this preseason, it was obvious this roster has actual competition at multiple spots, not just camp bodies filling out a roster. Wide receiver, running back, the secondary, the offensive line, all of it. There are good players on this roster right now who won’t make the 53-man on Sunday. That’s not a problem. That’s exactly the depth you want heading into a long season.
Two: 3-0 matters more than the “preseason wins don’t count” crowd wants to admit. If Buffalo had gone 0-3, we’d all be finding the excuses: Josh sat two games, those weren’t the starters, weird things happen with third and fourth stringers on the field. Fine, all true. But they didn’t go 0-3. They found a way to win all three, even with backups and split reps. That’s a real signal, not nothing.
Three: the new vibes are genuinely different, and that matters more than people give it credit for. I want to be clear, Sean McDermott did a whale of a job dragging this organization out of the dumpster over his tenure. But this team kept hitting the same ceiling. Promoting Brady and Bean internally could have easily felt like more of the same to that locker room, same faces, same result. Instead, the new voices, the new energy, the new stadium, all of it is giving this team the belief that this can actually be different. That belief matters just as much as the talent on the field. You need both: the roster strong enough to get it done, and the locker room that actually believes it can.
Could this team hit 14-3? Sure, if everything breaks right. But I don’t see a 10-7 floor unless Brady and Leonard look overwhelmed and inexperienced running their first year in charge, and through three preseason games, I’m not seeing that yet. We’ll find out fast once the games actually count.
