In this series, I will be looking at the history of coaches, quarterbacks, rushers, and receivers for all 32 franchises. For coaches and quarterbacks, I will be looking at how much their franchise’s career records (regular season only) would change if we removed the games with that person. For rushers and receivers, I will note how many times that player was the team’s leading rusher/receiver over the course of their time with that franchise (regular plus postseason).
Previous Teams:
The Buffalo Bills have had a lot of disappointing coaches in their history — I’m looking at you, Harvey Johnson — and only a few good ones. Just four have winning records, although that’s not the worst by AFC East standards. In many divisions, Marv Levy would be considered a strong candidate for the best coach in division history. In the AFC East, he’s relegated to third. But when it comes to Bills coaches, nobody can match his record:
You won’t be surprised to see the results at quarterback, either. Jim Kelly stands out as the most successful quarterback in franchise history by this methodology, although I’ll note that Doug Flutie actually has him beat on winning percentage. Meanwhile, Dennis Shaw is the man whose done the most harm to the franchise’s career winning percentage. As always, I also recommend sorting the table by games started.
The Bills have two Hall of Fame running backs, and both easily chart the tops here. It’s a testament to the great undrafted free agent running back Fred Jackson that he ranks third, and led the Bills in rushing yards in over half of his games (despite being a starter in under half of them).
Buffalo had a great run at the wide receiver position that scanned over two decades. Andre Reed was a star for 15 years, was replaced by the always underrated Eric Moulds, and even Lee Evans stood out as a strong wide receiver despite playing on awful passing offenses.
That’s it for the Buffalo version of this series. Please leave your thoughts in the comments.
