Shortsighted Bills building for the playoffs, not the Super Bowl
The Super Bowl window is a familiar concept to most football fans. In a league with a hard salary cap and malleable contracts, teams on the verge of a title run routinely elect to trade future financial hardship for a few more shots at glory.
Inevitably, the window closes, teams must make widespread cuts and endure a few years of salary cap hell before getting back on solid footing and beginning the cycle again.
The Buffalo Bills' blockbuster acquisition of LeSean McCoy, coupled with the team's trade for Matt Cassel a day later, strongly suggests the Bills believe their window is open.
But is it a Super Bowl window or is the bar set lower?
Lost seasons
It's been 15 years since the Bills last played in the postseason, the longest active drought in the NFL and an excruciating period for a generation of the most loyal fans in sports.
Over that stretch, the Bills have watched the hated New England Patriots win the AFC East a dozen times and hoist the Lombardi Trophy four times. There are no Super Bowl windows in New England, only perpetual contention.
But the Patriots are the exception. The Bills operate in the same reality as the rest of the NFL, where rebuilding is a natural part of life and a window of opportunity to contend must be seized, future considerations be damned.
The Bills want us to know they are all in.
Chips on the table
The seeds were planted a year ago, when the team opted to trade a future first-round pick to move up in the draft and select receiver Sammy Watkins despite lacking a quarterback to get him the ball.
Things were further illuminated when the Bills cut the cord on first-round pick EJ Manuel after only one year and dangled $11 million to lure Kyle Orton out of retirement.
The playoffs remained out of reach in 2014, but the Bills went 9-7 (their first winning record in a decade) and everything seemed to be headed in the right direction.
Things nearly went off the rails this offseason when the head coach quit, but the Bills regrouped and recommitted to the present. It's playoffs or bust.
It's Cassel - the 32-year-old journeyman with a 33-38 record as a starter - under center. It's McCoy, the high-priced running back the Philadelphia Eagles were prepared to cut before the Bills offered one of their most promising young defensive players, in the backfield. And it's one heck of a defense.
There won't be much help coming from the draft - the Bills won't pick until the middle of the second round - but the Bills believe they have the pieces they need to win now.
Are they right? The Patriots remain the class of the division, but the Bills haven't been better equipped to unseat them at any point this century. If nothing else, a wild-card berth is well within their grasp.
Lowered expectations
The better question is whether the Bills have done themselves and their fans a disservice by building the way they have.
Is there any reason to believe Cassel will really lead a team to the Super Bowl? Would the Bills be better off recommitting to Manuel and building for the long haul? For that matter, was trading up for Watkins (and surrendering the chance to draft a top passing prospect this year) a mistake that will haunt the team?
A playoff berth will be celebrated in Buffalo like a Super Bowl title in other markets, but where do the Bills go from there if they make it? How do you find the fire to advance deep into the playoffs when just getting there is the goal?
Maybe that's a problem the Bills are happy to push down the road to another year.