The image still lingers. Josh Allen, helmet off, shoulders heavy, walking off the field as the Chiefs celebrated yet again. For the fourth time in five years, Patrick Mahomes & Co. ended the Buffalo Bills’ season. This time, it was 32-29 in the 2024 AFC Championship, and Allen had done everything short of driving the team bus. “I always feel for him,” Mahomes told The Athletic. “He’s a great player… I’m sorry it had to be us.” Mahomes even called Allen a “friend.” But the bond doesn’t dull the ache. Regular-season wins don’t count in January. Allen knows it. Buffalo knows it.

Since 2020, the Bills have built, collapsed, rebuilt, and repeated. Allen’s been historically good in the postseason, tossing nine touchdowns and just one interception against the Chiefs in four playoff games. But results are all that stick.

As The MMQB noted, no quarterback has been this good and this ringless. That heartbreak to the Bengals in 2022. The coin toss game. The “13 seconds” collapse. These aren’t just footnotes; they’re scars. But now, for the first time in years, the narrative might finally shift. NFL.com’s Jeffri Chadiha thinks the Bills will win it all in 2025.

“This is bold simply because the Bills have dealt with so much heartache over the last five seasons. They’ve lost four playoff games to the Chiefs (including two AFC title bouts) and suffered another home defeat to the Bengals in the 2022 Divisional Round. This team has too much talent and smart coaching to continually miss out,” Chadiha wrote. His first reason? Allen is coming off his first MVP season with 40 total touchdowns and just six picks. The second? The Bills crushed the 2025 draft, adding speed with corner Maxwell Hairston and edge rusher Landon Jackson. And the third? The schedule: 10 games against teams with losing records in 2024. It’s the most favorable path they’ve had to the AFC’s top seed since Allen arrived.

If the Bills can clinch home-field advantage, history suggests the rest could fall in place. Allen doesn’t need to out-duel Mahomes in Arrowhead again. Instead, he just needs that one shot on his turf. That changes everything. Buffalo has waited three decades for a quarterback like this. Now it’s on them to build the finish his talent deserves. Mahomes may still be the gold standard, but the table feels set for Allen—finally—to flip it.

Josh Allen would love a ring

That’s ironic given how Josh Allen wrapped his offseason with a beautiful California wedding and a tropical honeymoon with now-wife Hailee Steinfeld. “Wifey,” he captioned the photos, with leis around their necks and smiles like they’d already won the Super Bowl. From the MVP to now spouse. His personal journey is coming through. But he’d love to rubber-stamp that with a championship ring as well. “I still didn’t win a Super Bowl. Didn’t win a ring, and that is the only goal,” he told Sports Illustrated. That line might sound cliché if it didn’t feel so pointed—and true.

The painful truth? This generation’s best dual-threat quarterback keeps running into a wall shaped like KC’s 15. Two straight seasons, two playoff exits by three points, both delivered by the Chiefs. Allen’s individual brilliance—40+ TDs for five years running—can only carry so much weight without hardware. And he knows it. “The one positive, I will say, about winning an MVP means that your team is in a good position,” he added. That team, by the way, returns all five offensive line starters, most of its scoring core, and a deeper bench. The window? Still wide open—but not forever.

So, what’s the path forward? It starts with grooming new go-to guy Keon Coleman. The second-year wideout had a quiet rookie year, but the Diggs departure left a vacuum that someone has to fill. “It’s imperative that the Bills figure out how to highlight Coleman’s strengths,” B/R’s Kristopher Knox said. There’s trust brewing there, and Allen needs a reliable big-play weapon to match his arm. Coleman’s 19.2 yards per reception last season flashes promise. Now, Buffalo needs production. Because if Coleman levels up, the offense won’t skip a beat even without Diggs.

With Allen locked in through 2030 and offensive coordinator Joe Brady dialing it up in Year 2, this is still one of the most efficient units in the league. 2nd in scoring and top-3 in EPA across the board. But we’ve seen this movie before. Stats. Fireworks. Wins. Then heartbreak. The only real change now would be the ending. And Allen, quietly, desperately, wants to rewrite it.