Bills Team Needs For The 2026 Offseason: Get Josh Allen Some Help

2025 marked the end of the Bills five-year reign over the AFC East, but they did win double-digit games for the seventh season in a row while deploying one of the game's most efficient offenses. This was, of course, mostly thanks to more god-level dual-threat goodness from Josh Allen as well as one helluva campaign from NFL-leading rusher James Cook.

• 2025: 12-5 (+116 point differential, preseason win total: 11.5)
• Points per game: 28.3 (tied for fourth)
• EPA per pass: +0.23 (fourth)
• EPA per rush: +0.04 (second)
• Points per game against: 21.5 (12th)
• EPA per pass against: -0.05 (eighth)
• EPA per rush against: +0.05 (31st)
  

GM Brandon Beane has the league's 10th-lowest effective cap space to work with ahead of the 2026 offseason, so expect Buffalo to do more of their team building through the draft as opposed to free agency.

What Do The Buffalo Bills Need To Address For 2026?

Front-Seven

Failure to consistently stop the run was the biggest weakness of the 2025 Buffalo Bills. Seven different opponents wound up rushing for 160-plus yards against this group—tied for the most in the NFL.

DT Ed Oliver being limited to just three games due to injuries was a big problem, but even getting their 28-year-old stud back at 100% in 2026 won't be enough. It remains to be seen if the Bills will manage to bring back front-seven free agents like EDGE Joey Bosa, DL DaQuan Jones, DL Larry Ogunjobi and LB Matt Milano; either way, all those guys are on the wrong side of 30, so getting more youth at and around the line of scrimmage is encouraged.

Buffalo has used at least one top-100 pick on their front-seven in each of the last eight drafts—don't be surprised if Beane and the Bills again dip their toes into the defensive line and/or linebacker draft pool come April.

Interior Offensive Line

Starting C Connor McGovern and LG David Edwards are both set to hit free agency after (again) helping Buffalo deploy one of the game's best offensive lines. This group has finished as one of PFF's top-six ranked units in each of the past three seasons and undoubtedly deserves a lot of credit for helping Josh Allen and James Cook form arguably the league's single-most lethal rushing attack.

Buffalo has only taken one swing at an offensive lineman before Round 5 during their last four drafts—getting more youth to work with should be a priority in the early rounds of the 2026 NFL Draft.

Wide Receiver

The Bills "Everybody eats" mantra is fine and dandy, but too often in recent years that has more so dwindled down to "Hopefully Josh Allen or James Cook make a big play."

The TE room is solid, and YAC-beast Khalil Shakir is holding down the fort in the slot, but recent higher-dollar free agent additions Curtis Samuel and Josh Palmer simply haven't been overly productive, and former 33rd-overall pick Keon Coleman is looking like a bust after being a healthy scratch for numerous games in 2026.

The Bills already have the league's 10th-most 2026 dollars devoted to their wide receiver and tight end rooms, so expecting a big-time splash seems unlikely. Still, this is clearly an area where the team feels they need improvement—Buffalo wouldn't have made midseason moves to bring back old friend Gabe Davis, or traded for Brandin Cooks, if they were comfortable with their current group of pass-catchers.

Honorable Mention

The secondary could use a bit of depth, considering cornerbacks Tre'Davious White and Cam Lewis join safeties Jordan Poyer, Damar Hamlin and Darnell Savage as free agents.

2025 first-round corner Maxwell Hairston should be ready to take on a larger role in year two after unfortunately missing half of 2025 due to knee and ankle injuries, while it remains to be seen if the front office views 2025 fifth-round safety Jordan Hancock as a viable enough option to join Cole Bishop in the starting line.

If I Were The GM …

I'd prioritize adding a field-stretching WR to help open up the underneath areas of the field for Khalil Shakir, as well as the offense's various talented pass-catching running backs and tight ends. Free agents Alec Pierce (WR, Colts) and Rashid Shaheed (WR, Seahawks) would be awesome, but likely to be out of Buffalo's price range, so why not throw a dart at someone like Tyquan Thornton? The ex-Patriot found new life in Kansas City last season and joined Pierce as the NFL's only wide receivers to average north of 20 yards per reception in 2025 (min. 35 targets).