Buffalo Bills

This article takes a look at the current American football team that has existed since 1960. For the historical team (1947–1949), see Buffalo Bills (AAFC) .

Buffalo Bills
Founded in 1959 playing in Orchard Park , New York
league
American Football League (1960-1969) Eastern Division (1960–1969) National Football League (1970-present) American Football Conference (1970-present) AFC East (1970-present)
Team colors	dark navy blue, red, royal blue , nickel, white
mascot	Billy Buffalo
staff
owner	Terrence Pegula
General manager	Brandon Beane
Head coach	Sean McDermott
Team history
Buffalo Bills (1960-present)
successes
NFL Champions (2) * AFL Championships (2) 1964 , 1965
Conference winner (4) AFC: 1990 , 1991 , 1992 , 1993
Division Winner (10) AFL East: 1964, 1965, 1966 AFC East: 1980 , 1988 , 1989 , 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995
Play-off appearances (19)
AFL: 1963 , 1964, 1965, 1966 NFL: 1974 , 1980, 1981 , 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996 , 1998 , 1999 , 2017 , 2019
Stages
War Memorial Stadium (1960–1972) Rogers Center (2008-2013, 1 game per year) New Era Field (1973-present) aka Rich Stadium (1973-1998) aka Ralph Wilson Stadium (1998-2016)

The Buffalo Bills are a National Football League (NFL) American football team based in Buffalo , New York . The name comes from a public vote from 1946. The proposal by James F. Dyson won and Dyson got this 500  US dollars . Other of the more than 4,500 entries were “Bullets”, “Nickels” and “Blue Devils”.

Team history

The Buffalo Bills were a founding member of the American Football League (AFL) in 1960 . In a very offensively dominated league, the Bills were an excellent defensive team. In 1964, the defense achieved its best performance and allowed the opposing offense teams only 298 runs for 918 yards of space during the entire season  - a little over 65 yards per game in a 14-game regular season (the 1960-1969 at the AFL as well 1961-1977 was played in the NFL) and thus an NFL record. The Bills won 13 games in the AFL and the title as the only team that year .

In 1965 they were able to repeat the success and also reached the final in the following year, but lost this time. However, they were the only AFL team that four times in a row (1963-1966) could reach the play-offs .

Before the 1969 season, the Bills could draft OJ Simpson , who helped shape the game of the Bills in the 1970s.

After the AFL merged with the NFL, the Bills initially played in the basement of the league before their former coach Lou Saban returned in 1972 and led the Bills back up.

1973 was a year of change for the Bills. Joe Ferguson became the new quarterback , they played in a new stadium, and Simpson ran a 2,000-yard record that earned him the title of Most Valuable Player in the NFL. With the first positive result of the season since 1966, they reached the play-offs of the NFL for the first time.

The rest of the 1970s went without a great deal of heights. In 1977 O. J. Simpson was transferred to the San Francisco 49ers and Chuck Knox became the new coach.

In 1983 the Bills drafted quarterback Jim Kelly , who first played in the new United States Football League (USFL) with the Houston Gamblers and only came to the Bills after their decline in 1986. With him and running back Thurman Thomas , who joined the Bills in 1988, the march to the top of the NFL began. Head Coach Marv Levy revolutionized the NFL with the so-called "K-Gun" offense , a hurry-up offense that was run throughout the game . The namesake was Tight End Keith McKeller , who cleared the way for Thomas like an offensive lineman on running plays and caught Kelly's passes like a wide receiver in the passing game . With what is probably the fastest offense in the league, they reached the Super Bowl in January 1991 , as did the next three years - the only team to reach the Super Bowl four times in a row. The team's great tragedy was that they lost all four games.

After that, the bills sank into mediocrity. From 2000 to 2013, the Bills did not play a play-off game and did not end a season with more than eight wins. In the 2014 season, Buffalo had long had a positive win / loss ratio. The Bills could not take part in the play-offs with 9 wins and 7 losses. After the season, Head Coach Doug Marrone left the Bills through an opt-out clause in his contract. Marrone had 15 wins and 17 defeats at the Bills in his two years. In January 2015, Rex Ryan , who had previously coached division rival New York Jets for six years, was introduced as the new head coach . After the 16th round of the 2016 NFL season and repeated failure to reach the play-offs, the Bills parted ways with Ryan. On January 11, 2017, his successor Sean McDermott was introduced, he is the 20th head coach in the history of the Buffalo Bills. With him, the Bills reached the play-offs for the first time since 1999 . Here, however, they lost the first game 3:10 against the Jacksonville Jaguars .

expansion

As of 2008, the Buffalo Bills played one of their home games in Canada ( Toronto , Rogers Center ) each season . This agreement was limited to five years. In January 2013 the contract was extended for a further five years. In March 2014 it was announced that it would be suspended for one year. In December 2014 it was decided not to play any more games in Toronto.

Great bowls

Although the Bills reached the Super Bowl four times in a row from the 1990 season to the 1993 season , they never won it.

• Super Bowl XXV - 19:20 against the New York Giants
• Super Bowl XXVI - 24:37 against the Washington Redskins
• Super Bowl XXVII - 17:52 against the Dallas Cowboys
• Super Bowl XXVIII - 1:30 p.m. against the Dallas Cowboys

player

Current squad

Squad of the Buffalo Bills
Quarterbacks 17 Josh Allen  5 Matt Barkley Running backs 42 Patrick DiMarco FB 20 Frank Gore 32 Senorise Perry 26 Devin Singletary KR 22 TJ Yeldon Wide receiver 10 Cole Beasley 15 John Brown 16 Robert Foster 19 Isaiah McKenzie PR 18 Andre Roberts KR / PR 82 Duke Williams Tight ends 88 Dawson Knox 81 Tyler Kroft 85 Lee Smith 89 Tommy Sweeney	Offensive linemen 71 Ryan Bates T 65 Ike Boettger G. 73 Dion Dawkins T 76 Jon Feliciano G 70 Cody Ford T 61 Spencer Long C 60 Mitch Morse C 77 Ty Nsekhe T 67 Quinton Spain G Defensive linemen 55 Jerry Hughes DE 92 Darryl Johnson DE 90 Shaq Lawson DE 94 Corey Liuget DT 98 Star Lotulelei DT 93 Trent Murphy DE 91 Ed Oliver DT 97 Jordan Phillips DT 96 Vincent Taylor DT	Linebacker 57 Lorenzo Alexander OLB 49 Tremaine Edmunds MLB 58 Matt Milano OLB 51 Julian Stanford MLB 52 Corey Thompson OLB Defensive backs 28 Kurt Coleman FS 23 Micah Hyde FS / PR 46 Jaquan Johnson SS 29 Kevin Johnson CB 24 Taron Johnson CB 31 Dean Marlowe SS 33 Siran Neal SS 21 Jordan Poyer SS 39 Levi Wallace CB 27 Tre'Davious White CB Special teams  9 Corey Bojorquez P 69 Reid Ferguson LS  4 Stephen Hauschka K	Reserve List 41 Maurice Alexander OLB (IR) 80 Jason Croom TE (IR) 50 Vosean Joseph OLB (IR) 56 Mike Love DE (IR) 99 Harrison Phillips DT (IR) 74 LaAdrian Waddle T (IR) Practice Squad 84 Nate Becker TE 53 Tyrel Dodson LB 86 Nick Easley WR 68 Brandon Hitner T 47 Cam Lewis CB 14 Ray-Ray McCloud WR 43 Del'Shawn Phillips LB 62 Victor Salako T 45 Christian Wade RB  7 Davis Webb QB 59 Jonathan Woodard DE
			Rookies in italics Roster status: January 1, 2020 Depth Chart • Transactions 53 active, 6 inactive, 11 practice squad

Bills in the Pro Football Hall of Fame

Pro Football Hall of Fame members
Jersey number	Surname	position	For Buffalo Active	Year of admission
32	OJ Simpson	RB	1969-1977	1985
78	Billy Shaw	G	1961-1969	1999
-	Marv Levy	Head coach	1986-1997	2001
12	Jim Kelly	QB	1986-1996	2002
68	Joe DeLamielleurs	G	1973-79, 1985	2003
86/80	James Lofton	WR	1989-1992	2003
34	Thurman Thomas	RB	1988-1999	2007
78	Bruce Smith	DE	1985-1999	2009
-	Ralph Wilson	Founder, owner	1959-2014	2009
83	Andre Reed	WR	1985-1996	2014
-	Bill Polian	General manager	1986-1992	2015
81	Terrell Owens	WR	2009	2018

Buffalo Bill's Wall of Fame

The Bills have been honoring a well-deserved player or official since 1980. As a rule, this honor is given annually. The player must have played in Buffalo for at least three years, earned special merit, and completed his or her career. The honor is pronounced during a game and made clear by a notice in the stadium. The following people have received this honor:

• 1980: OJ Simpson
• 1984: Jack Kemp
• 1985: Patrick J. McGroder
• 1987: Tom Sestak
• 1988: Billy Shaw
• 1989: Ralph C. Wilson Jr.
• 1992: the 12th man on the pitch - the fans in the stadium
• 1993: Elbert Dubenion
• 1994: Mike Stratton
• 1995: Joe Ferguson
• 1996: Marv Levy
• 1997: Joe DeLamielleure
• 1998: Robert James
• 1999: Edward Abramoski
• 2000: Bob Kalsu
• 2000: George Saimes
• 2001: Jim Kelly
• 2001: Fred Smerlas
• 2002: Kent Hull
• 2003: Darryl Talley
• 2004: Jim Ritcher
• 2005: Thurman Thomas
• 2006: Andre Reed
• 2007: Steve Tasker
• 2008: Bruce Smith
• 2010: Booker Edgerson
• 2011: Phil Hansen
• 2012: Bill Polian
• 2014: Van Miller
• 2015: Lou Saban
• 2017: Cookie Gilchrist

Special jersey numbers

Retired Numbers of the Buffalo Bills
No.	player	position	Period
12 1	Jim Kelly	QB	1986-1996

¹ Before the number was banned , Daryle Lamonica , QB from 1963 to 1966, and Joe Ferguson , QB from 1973 to 1984 , wore the number 12.

Officially, the Bills with the number 12 have only blocked one shirt number . However, there are other numbers that have either only been unofficially withdrawn or are only rarely given.

Unofficially Retired Numbers of the Buffalo Bills
No.	player	position	Period	annotation
32	OJ Simpson	RB	1969-1977	First running back to break the 2000 rushing yards mark in one season in 1973
34	Thurman Thomas	RB	1988-1999	Together with Kelly and WR Reed he formed the "Triplets of the North"
78	Bruce Smith	DE	1985-1999	With a total of 200 sacks, the NFL career record holder

The back number 15, worn 1962–1969 by QB Jack Kemp , 44, worn 1960–1968 by WR Elbert Dubenion , 66, worn 1961–1969 by Guard Billy Shaw and 83, worn 1985–1996 by WR Andre Reed , are rare awarded by the bills.

Trainer (Head Coaches)

#	Surname	Period	Regular season					Play-offs			Achievements / Awards	reference
			Games	S.	N	UE	Won%	Games	S.	N
Buffalo Bills
1	Buster Ramsey *	1960-1961	28	11	16	1	.407	-	-	-
2	Lou Saban	1962-1965	56	36	17th	3	.679	3	2	1	UPI NFL Trainer of the Year (1964, 1965)
3	Joe Collier * 1	1966-1968	30th	13	16	1	.448	1	0	1
4th	Harvey Johnson *	1968	12	1	10	1	.091	-	-	-
5	John Rauch	1969-1970	28	7th	20th	1	.250	-	-	-
-	Harvey Johnson *	1971	14th	1	13	0	.071	-	-	-
-	Lou Saban 2	1972-1976	61	32	28	1	.533	1	0	1
6th	Jim Ringo 3	1976-1977	23	3	20th	0	.130	-	-	-
7th	Chuck Knox	1978-1982	73	37	36	0	.507	3	1	2	AP NFL Coach of the Year (1980) Sporting News NFL Coach of the Year (1980) Pro Football Weekly NFL Coach of the Year (1980)
8th	Kay Stephenson * 4	1983-1985	36	10	26th	0	.277	-	-	-
9	Hank Bullough 5	1985-1986	21st	4th	17th	0	.190	-	-	-
10	Marv Levy	1986-1997	182	112	70	0	.615	19th	11	8th	Sporting News NFL Coach of the Year (1988) UPI NFL Coach of the Year (1988, 1993)
11	Wade Phillips	1998-2000	48	29	19th	0	.604	2	0	2
12	Gregg Williams	2001-2003	48	17th	31	0	.354	-	-	-
13	Mike Mularkey	2004-2005	32	14th	18th	0	.438	-	-	-
14th	Dick Jauron 6	2006-2009	57	24	33	0	.421	-	-	-
15th	Perry Fewell *	2009	7th	3	4th	0	.429	-	-	-
16	Chan Gailey	2010–2012	48	16	32	0	.333	-	-	-
17th	Doug Marrone	2013-2014	32	15th	17th	0	.469	-	-	-
18th	Rex Ryan 7	2015-2016	31	15th	16	0	.484	-	-	-
19th	Anthony Lynn	2016	1	0	1	0	.000	-	-	-
20th	Sean McDermott *	2017–	48	25th	23	0	.521	2	0	2

¹ Collier was sacked after two games and a 0-2 record in the 1968 season . The Bills' HR director, Harvey Johnson, has been appointed interim coach.

² From December 21, 1971 , Saban took over the Bills again as head coach. He was also named Vice President for Football Operations. Previous head coach Harvey Johnson was named director of the professional team.

³ On October 15, 1976 Saban resigned as head coach. He was replaced by offensive line coach Jim Rango. Despite nine consecutive losses that Rango coached after Saban's resignation, he was given a coaching contract for the 1977 season in December 1976 .

^4th On October 1, 1985 , Kay Stephenson was fired after a 0-4 record and replaced by his assistant Hank Bullough.

⁵ On November 3, 1986 , Bullough was fired and replaced by the former head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs Marv Levy.

^6th On November 17, 2009 , Dick Jauron was released and replaced by Defense Coordinator Perry Fewell.

^7th On December 27, 2016 , Rex Ryan was released and replaced by offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn as interim coach.

#	Order of trainers
Games	Play as a coach
S.	Victories
N	Defeats
UE	draw
Won%	Win rate
*	Only active at the Bills as a head coach

• 

  Wade Phillips, Head Coach from 1998 to 2000

• 

  Gregg Williams, Head Coach from 2001 to 2003

• 

  Doug Marrone, Head Coach from 2013 to 2014

• 

  Rex Ryan, Head Coach from 2015 to 2016

owner

When Lamar Hunt was looking for appropriate franchisees for his planned rival league AFL, he found a suitable investor for the Buffalo venue in Ralph Wilson . Wilson had built up the conglomerate "Ralph Wilson Industries" from his father's insurance business. Wilson was until then a minority owner of the Detroit Lions. Through informal discussions in 1965 with the owner of the Baltimore Colts, Carroll Rosenbloom , he started the merger with the NFL.

Wilson passed away on March 25, 2014. After George Halas and Art Rooney , he was the longest-running owner of a franchise at the age of 44. The franchise was managed as an estate and offered for sale by his widow Mary and three other people after the death.

On September 9, 2014, the franchise was bought by the former oil industry entrepreneur and current owner of several sports franchises in Buffalo and the surrounding area (ice hockey, lacrosse) Terrence Pegula and his wife Kim. He was able to prevail against Donald Trump and Jon Bon Jovi , who had also shown interest. Pegula guaranteed that the franchise would remain in Buffalo. The deal, with a purchase price of around $ 1.4 billion, was approved by the NFL team owners on October 8, 2014.

Web links

Commons : Buffalo Bills  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Buffalo Bill's homepage
• Detailed information on the Buffalo Bills in German

Individual evidence

1. ↑ In a single season, from 1960 to 1977, in the regular season, sorted by ascending opp Rushing Yds. In: Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved January 7, 2018 . 
2. ^ Doug Marrone decides to opt out of contract with bills. Retrieved January 1, 2015 .  
3. ^ Rex Ryan named Buffalo Bills head coach. buffalobills.com, January 12, 2015, accessed June 20, 2019 . 
4. ^ Bills relieve Rex Ryan, Rob Ryan of coaching duties . Archived from the original on July 30, 2017. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
5. ↑ John Breech: Bills tap Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott as next head coach , cbssports.com. January 11, 2017. 
6. ^ Bill's postpone Toronto Series for one year . In: Sportsnet Network . Rogers Media. Retrieved May 3, 2014.
7. ↑ http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000438147/article/buffalo-bills-terminate-toronto-series
8. ↑ The untouchable numbers . Buffalo Bills. June 17, 2011. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
9. ↑ Stefan Feldmann: Numbers that are no longer assigned: Buffalo . bigplay.ch. February 28, 2016. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
10. ↑ Statistics by Buster Ramsey . Retrieved December 29, 2015.
11. ^ ^{A b} Statistics by Lou Saban . Retrieved December 29, 2015.
12. ^ Statistics by Joe Collier . Retrieved December 29, 2015.
13. ↑ ^{a b} Statistics from Harvey Johnson . Retrieved December 29, 2015.
14. ^ Statistics by John Rauch . Retrieved December 29, 2015.
15. ↑ Statistics by Jim Ringo . Retrieved December 29, 2015.
16. ↑ Statistics by Chuck Knox . Retrieved December 29, 2015.
17. ↑ Statistics by Kay Stephenson . Retrieved December 29, 2015.
18. ↑ Statistics by Hank Bullough . Retrieved December 29, 2015.
19. ^ Statistics by Marv Levy . Retrieved December 29, 2015.
20. ^ Statistics by Wade Phillips . Retrieved December 29, 2015.
21. ^ Statistics by Gregg Williams . Retrieved January 8, 2020.
22. ^ Statistics by Mike Mularkey . Retrieved December 29, 2015.
23. ^ Statistics by Dick Jauron . Retrieved December 29, 2015.
24. ^ Statistics by Perry Fewell . Retrieved December 29, 2015.
25. ^ Statistics from Chan Gailey . Retrieved December 29, 2015.
26. ^ Statistics by Doug Marrone . Retrieved December 29, 2015.
27. ^ Statistics from Rex Ryan . Retrieved December 29, 2015.
28. ↑ Statistics by Anthony Lynn . Retrieved March 28, 2017.
29. ↑ Statistics by Sean McDermott . Retrieved January 8, 2020.
30. ↑ 10 Sep 2014, Page A1 - Democrat and Chronicle at Newspapers.com. Retrieved February 12, 2020 . 
31. ↑ 10 Sep 2014, Page A6 - Democrat and Chronicle at Newspapers.com. Retrieved February 12, 2020 . 
32. ↑ 15 Apr 2014, U3 - Daily Press at Newspapers.com. Retrieved February 12, 2020 . 
33. ↑ Jul 19, 2014, 24 - Calgary Herald at Newspapers.com. Retrieved February 12, 2020 . 
34. ^ Pegula expected to pay cash for Buffalo Bills. September 16, 2014, accessed February 12, 2020 .