Batavia, N.Y. (WBEN) - We're a little more than three weeks away from the Buffalo Bills kicking off the 2022 regular season on Thursday, Sept. 8 when they travel to Los Angeles, California to take on the defending Super Bowl champion Rams at SoFi Stadium.
Among many fans, NFL analysts and other league pundits, the Bills remain the early favorite to not only represent the AFC in Glendale, Arizona this upcoming February for the Super Bowl, but also hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy as the champions of football. A win in Super Bowl LVII would be the team's first Super Bowl title since the NFL-AFL merger in 1965.
While expectations of the Bills continue to run sky-high across football circles, where do the expectations of this 2022 squad lie among some of the franchise's all-time greats?
Monday marked the 35th annual Jim Kelly Celebrity Golf Classic at Terry Hills Golf Course in Batavia, where a number of Bills Legends and other alumni gathered to help raise money for a number of local causes in the Western New York region.
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After taking a year off from the tournament following ankle replacement surgery, Kelly, himself, was back on the course to join a number of his friends taking part in the event. While the expectations of the Bills this season may vary, depending on who you talk to, Kelly tries not to look too far ahead at all the excitement.
"You talk to reporters and fans, [they say] Super Bowl or bust. I look at it as take one thing at a time, and as a player, if you've ever played the game, you'd understand that," said Kelly just before tee time at Terry Hills. "The biggest key, I think we all know this and it's probably no cliche now, but it's just staying healthy. We've got to keep our star players healthy. I've already had a good talk with [offensive coordinator] Ken Dorsey, he was one of my speakers at my Football Camp. I said, 'The only thing I've got to say, bud, is limit the amount of called plays for Josh [Allen] to run!' I get the scrambling, but I don't want to see him 8-10 times on a keeper that was put in from sidelines. No, we don't need all that.
"But I'm excited. I think everybody here is, I'm sure. I mean. the 'Bills Mafia' get everybody going, they've got this old timer going, and I know talking to Bruce [Smith] and Thurman [Thomas] and them, they're pumped too."
"When I look at it, I see a team that's very together. I see a team that plays for one another, I see a team that's willing to fight in all situations," added former Bills linebacker Darryl Talley. "The only thing is, I think that they're gonna have to play from the front of the pack, and it's different playing from the front of the pack than playing from the back. When you play from the front, everybody's out to get you. When you play from the back, you're out to get everybody else. That's the thing they're going to have to deal with."
Back in the 1990s when the Bills were a consistent playoff team and went to four-straight Super Bowls between the 1990 and 1993 seasons, the team was able to continue to find ways to win. They worked together as a group, while also playing tight and remaining resilient on the field and staying focused on the task at hand. It's that mentality and work ethic that Talley believes will be important for this Bills group if they hope to win the Super Bowl.
"It's important to winning, because you gotta remember, you're going to be in a spot where you're going to be beat up, you're going to be hurt, you're going to be cut, whatever. Then you have some sort of problem, and you're not going to be able to get out of it by yourself. Somebody's gonna have to help you. So if you know you got guys that you can depend on to come help you, then you've done a good job. You've done a good job as a coaching staff building a culture like that, because that's very important," Talley explained.
While the 2022 Bills team has a number of key pieces returning from last year's team, and even the 2020 team that made it to the AFC Championship Game, the group went out and made a key splash in free agency with the signing of pass rusher Von Miller. Although he signed a six-year deal at the age of 32, at the time, Talley feels Miller is what the Bills have been looking for on a defense that ranked No. 1 in the NFL last season.
"I think he can be a missing piece, because you gotta remember we've had so many miss sacks in the past couple of years, and Von doesn't seem to miss the guy. That's the thing you gotta like about him, plus he's a linebacker," Talley said. "So you've gotta root for him, the guy that can come off the edge and make his own plays."
As for where his expectations are for this current Bills team, Talley feels this team should always come in with the mindset of winning games.
"If you didn't expect to win, why the hell would you play the game? Point blank, they're coming out to win," he said.
Also in attendance for Monday's Jim Kelly Celebrity Golf Classic was former Bills general manager and Hall of Fame executive, Bill Polian. The 79-year-old started his tenure with the Bills in 1985 as the team's pro personnel director before being promoted to general manager of the team before the 1986 season. He served in that role for the Bills through the 1992 season.
Since then, Polian went on to become a general manager with the Carolina Panthers and Indianapolis Colts before taking a role as a NFL analyst with ESPN for some time.
When looking at this group assembled by general manager Brandon Beane and head coach Sean McDermott, Polian believes whole-heartedly that the Bills are among a small group of teams that are genuine, bonafide Super Bowl contenders.
"Marv [Levy] and I talk about this all the time, they remind us so much of our teams, the way they're put together, the philosophy, the way they play, the way Sean [McDermott] coaches, his game management. All of that is exceptional," said Polian on Monday. "Having said that, 17 games changes a lot, seven teams in the playoffs changes a lot, because you lose a bye now. So the road to the Holy Grail, if you will, to the Promise Land, is a lot tougher than it used to be. There's much more chance that Lady Luck will play a role. Fate may deal you have bad hands and things like that, but this is a really good team and I'm sure it's going to be in the hunt the whole way."
Polian says that if there's one piece that will be crucial to reaching the Super Bowl this season, and perhaps winning it all come February, is quarterback Josh Allen.
"If you don't have the quarterback, you're not a bonafide contender. That's the bottom line," he said.
The former Bills general manager also looked at the job that Beane did this offseason with addressing the issues on his roster, and felt that Buffalo had, arguably, the best offseason among any other team in the NFL. This included the addition of Miller to the pass rush, who replaces longtime veteran Jerry Hughes, who left the Bills to join the Houston Texans this offseason.
So where do the expectations for this Bills team lie with Polian with just a few weeks remaining until the regular season?
"From the fans, I think they're a little bit higher and a little bit unrealistic, because there was such a drought for all the years in-between our team and this team, Brandon [Beane] and Sean and Marv and I. So I can understand that the fans are excited, and they should be, because it's a really good team," Polian said. "But you have to temper that with the idea that 17 games, I can't emphasize that enough. That changes a whole bunch of the equation, and then, of course, the fact that you eliminate a bye in the playoffs, you have to play an extra game, those are two big changes that we didn't face."
While Drew Bledsoe's tenure with the Bills was relatively short-lived - three seasons between 2002 and 2004 - he was welcomed with open arms from the City of Buffalo when acquired from the New England Patriots. The 14-year NFL veteran has said a number of times how much he loved being part of the Buffalo community in his three short seasons with the team.
"I still root for the Bills. It was just a special thing being here," said Bledsoe before teeing off on Monday. "The fans here are so loyal, they're so good. For the fans, as much as anything else, I would love to see the Bills win a championship."
When the 50-year-old looks at the current make up of the Bills, the first player that stands out to him is, of course, the starting quarterback.
"He's a special one," Bledsoe said of Allen. "He throws it great, he's accurate, but then when he pulls it down and runs with it, the guy's a force to be reckoned with from that standpoint too. So he's a good fit here, and I think he's going to be a great quarterback for many, many years to come."
While he understands that last year's AFC Divisional Round loss to the Kansas City Chiefs may still be a sore subject among many Bills fans, he thought that a Super Bowl was in the cards for this team in 2021.
"That broke my heart, especially knowing that the AFC Championship Game would have been here in Buffalo," Bledsoe said. "I would have had to move Heaven and Earth, but I would have gotten here for that week. This area deserves it."
During the 1996 season, Bledsoe was able to help lead New England to an appearance in Super Bowl XXXI, where the Patriots ended up losing to Hall-of-Famer Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers. Although he ended up losing that Super Bowl matchup, he knows what it's going to take for this team to potentially get there in 2022.
"You get into the playoffs, and last year, I think we all thought that they were there last year. It was just heartbreaking, but they're there. I don't think there's no major hurdles they have to get over. They've just got to make sure the ball bounces the right way late in the season," Bledsoe said.
With that being said, Bledsoe admits that he fits into the group that has those high expectations for the Bills this season.
"I think they're playing great defense, they got a great quarterback, they've got some weapons on the outside. I think they've got all the pieces in place to really make a run," he said.
As for actor Christopher McDonald, best known for his role as "Shooter McGavin" in the 1996 film Happy Gilmore, he, too, has high expectations for this Bills squad going into the year. The native of Romulus, New York is certainly hopeful to see a Super Bowl title finally come to Western New York after many years of coming just short.
"It's the best team we're putting on the field right now, ridiculously talented people," said McDonald of his favorite team. "17-14 [Allen-to-Stefon Diggs], that connection is money. Like I say, it's really fun to be a Bills fan right now, because they're so good. The defense, respect. The defense is on fire, it's great to be a Bills fan."