Can the Bills thrive under increasing pressure and expectations?

From 1990 through 1993, the Buffalo Bills made it to the Super Bowl every single year. It’s one of the most underappreciated accomplishments in league history. The 2020 and 2021 Bills did not get there. And yet it feels like the current Bills have the exact same pressure and expectations to win the Super Bowl in 2022 as the Bills of 30 years ago ever did.

It’s strange, for a variety of reasons. The AFC currently has 13 legitimate contenders — maybe 14 if the Jaguars turn things around suddenly under the guidance of Super Bowl-winning coach Doug Pederson. And somehow the Bills have emerged from that morass of quality franchises as the favorites to get to the Super Bowl and win it.

Not the Chiefs, who beat the Bills in each of the last two postseasons and who still have Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid. Not the Bengals, who emerged from the meat grinder in 2021 to make it to the Super Bowl by doing what the Bills have failed to do — beat Kansas City in the playoffs. The Bills are the ones with the weight of the football world on their shoulders.

It’s not an erroneous assessment of the team, not with Josh Allen at quarterback, Stefon Diggs and emerging star Gabriel Davis at receiver, newcomer Von Miller at pass rusher, and few glaring weaknesses. The close-but-no-cigar experiences of the past two years coupled with the assessment of the team’s supreme talent have created a sense that it’s Super Bowl or bust for the Bills.

So what happens if it’s bust? What if the season ends with a failure similar to the 13-second fiasco that resulted in the Bills seeing an epic playoff win become an epic fail? It’s easy to pin it all on losing the coin toss in overtime; the Bills would have never gotten to the coin toss in overtime if they’d