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Should I just copy and paste a list of the top four Buffalo Bills needs from the 2025 offseason? Despite a change at head coach for the first time in almost a decade, the Bills find themselves once more heading into an offseason focused on similar items from last offseason.
But even the faces are the same or similar to previous years, how do you order them? Has the 2025 season changed the way you look at wide receiver or edge rusher? Did Keon Coleman’s bumpy season rocket wide receiver to the top of your needs list? Was it already there?
A defensive coordinator change brings Jim Leonhard into the fold, and adjustments to the scheme could either alleviate or exacerbate the previous defensive needs, but that’s all projection at this point. Does your opinion of the defensive scheme change put the spotlight on edge rusher in your opinion with visions of odd front looks dancing in your heads?
Here are my top four needs for the 2026 offseason for the Bills, ranked from most pressing to least:
Edge Rusher
I can completely see the argument to put wide receiver in the top spot. The needs specifically on the outside have been notable since the departure of former WR1 Stefon Diggs via trade.
So why does edge rusher get the nod here?
The Bills have shown they can field a top passing attack in spite of their lack of top outside wide receivers. They have not shown they can field a strong pass rush in the absence of a top edge rusher.
Maybe Jim Leonhard can manufacture a strong pass rush without meaningful personnel reinforcements. In that case, the logic used above would then apply to Bruce’s number-one need. But until we see it, it’s theorizing.
Michael Hoecht may come back from an Achilles tear in 2026 and provide high level pass rush off the edge but barring that outcome, there doesn’t seem to be a player currently on the roster that can confidently project to be a strong top pass rusher off the edge. The $80 million dollar man Gregory Rousseau may play some on the edge in 3-4 looks, but may spend time in five tech or 4i alignments when the Bills want to play odd front. (Ironically enough, coming out of college, many projected the man we affectionately call “Groot” as an optimal fit in those spots.)
Buffalo don’t have one, and the Bills haven’t shown they can consistently win that part of the game without one.
Wide Receiver
Buffalo’s aforementioned 2024 second-round pick may break out in year three, but Keon Coleman hope isn’t an optimal strategy for a team in a Super Bowl window. As mentioned above, the Bills have managed to field successful passing offenses in both 2024 and 2025 without a singularly strong receiving weapon outside of the oft-injured tight end Dalton Kincaid, whose insane efficiency metrics only make his frequent absences all the more frustrating.
But after a historic season avoiding negative plays from quarterback Josh Allen in 2024 (which contributed meaningfully to his Most Valuable Player award), 2025 saw some regression for the passing offense. Josh Allen’s EPA per drop back fell from 0.33 in 2024 to 0.23 in 2025, and while his 2024 is still stellar and ranked in the top five in the NFL, continuing to ask him to carry the passing game without targets good enough to demand the ball can be solved with a higher level influx of talent.
Buffalo has signed wide receivers in free agency to reasonable contracts in back-to-back seasons, but neither Curtis Samuel (who looms as a potential cut candidate this offseason) nor Joshua Palmer have made meaningful contributions thus far Bills. Time certainly isn’t over for Palmer, who will most certainly return as an option for the team.
But as players like Romeo Doubs, Rashid Shaheed and Mike Evans loom in free agency, the Bills are going into another offseason with not just a wide receiver need, but two specific sub-needs: verticality at the position and target-demanding competence. Ideally, those two needs could be filled with the same player. Maybe Palmer becomes some assistance, solving the verticality, and the Bills sign Doubs, a target-earner even in Green Bay’s heavy wide receiver rotation. But is that just Samuel and Palmer redux?
The Bills aren’t likely to be in position to select one of the top three receivers in the 2026 NFL Draft, but president of football operations/general manager Brandon Beane could make an aggressive move up the board for Carnell Tate, Jordan Tyson, or Makai Lemon.
The Bills actually have two needs to solve with the wide receiver position, and they’ve tried to band-aid it for two years without a long-term solve.
Safety
Former second-round pick Cole Bishop took a significant leap forward in his second year, matching his athleticism with confidence to consistently make impact plays in both pass coverage and run defense in 2025. But on the other side of him, former starter Taylor Rapp has a contract that might make him a cap casualty this year and even if he remains on the roster, he had a single solid season as a starter in Buffalo and is coming off a significant knee injury that caused him to miss the majority of the 2025 season.
The Bills hope they have three out of four base defensive backs settled with recently extended Christian Benford, Bishop, and 2025 first-round pick Maxwell Hairston. But there’s a glaring hole in that group of four in a situation where a defensive scheme change may put additional pressure on the back seven to hang in different types of coverages than the Cover 3 plurality they employed under former head coach Sean McDermott and prior defensive coordinator Bobby Babich.
Safety is the position on the free agent market that remains undervalued, so the Bills aren’t required to make a high draft pick in this area to solve this problem while remaining fiscally conservative.
Center
All of these needs are ranked with the assumption that Buffalo’s pending unrestricted free agents will not be back with the team. As of now, that means the Bills have a hole right in the middle of their offensive line.
Connor McGovern is slated to be a free agent, and the center market peaks with Kansas City’s Creed Humphrey at $18 million per year. It’s not as high of a pinnacle as the guard market (Tyler Smith of Dallas at $24 million average annual value), but the Bills may still find themselves priced out on their former starting center.
The question that looms is this: Do the Bills think that 2024 fifth round pick Sedrick Van Pran-Granger is ready to step in? We established above that hope is not a plan, but competition for VPG is likely on the mind of the team even if they believe in his ability as a potential pivot man for the team in 2026.
Center isn’t a value position in free agency the way safetis. Yet, with only seven centers currently on contracts that average over $10 million per year, the Bills could still find a player like Cade Mays of the Carolina Panthers (I know) for markedly less than the contract likely to be awarded to Connor McGovern.
This isn’t an exhaustive list of Bills needs for 2026. Linebacker (with the assumption that Matt Milano isn’t back), punter, tight end (if Dawson Knox is released), nickel defender, and nose tackle are also on the list and I can see an argument for many of them taking a place in the top four. But whether you’re attempting to list every need for the team or just highlighting a few at the top, the team has work to do in 2026.
…and that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I’m Bruce Nolan with Buffalo Rumblings. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @BruceExclusive and look for new episodes of “The Bruce Exclusive” every Thursday on the Rumblings Cast Network — see more in my LinkTree!