After another disappointing ending to their season, the Buffalo Bills are back and starting work toward the next season.
Quarterback Josh Allen and other veterans arrived at the team’s facility on April 21 for the start of offseason program. The players will continue to meet over the course of the spring, with the first coming in the days before the NFL draft.
The Bills shared video of the players arriving on Monday, with Allen’s arrival sparking some interest among fans.
Josh Allen’s Gloomy Arrival
Allen and his teammates braved some downcast spring weather, arriving in a rainstorm to the team’s facility just outside of Buffalo. This marked Allen’s return to Buffalo for the first time since earning league MVP honors at the conclusion of last season and the first time players returned after cleaning out their lockers following the AFC Championship game loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Fans were happy to see Allen back and getting to work preparing for the upcoming season.
“Oh how I miss this sight,” one fan shared in response to the team’s post on Instagram.
“The MVP is in the building!!” another wrote.
The Bills shared other videos of players arriving, including wide receiver Khalil Shakir and tight end Dalton Kincaid.
Allen’s arrival on Monday also gave fans the chance to begin moving beyond the heartbreak of last season, when the Bills fell just short of making the Super Bowl. After their loss to the Chiefs, Allen said the team simply didn’t do enough.
“To be the champs, you’ve got to beat the champs, and we didn’t do that tonight,” Allen said after the game, via NFL.com.
Head coach Sean McDermott added that his team needed to do more work to get past their longtime rival, who advanced to the Super Bowl for the third straight season before losing to the Philadelphia Eagles.
“We’ve got to keep working to get over that hump,” McDermott said. “We’ve won a lot of tough games this year against really good opponents, (we have) good coaches and I’m proud of this football team for it.”
McDermott added that he believes his team has what it takes to get over the hump.
“This is obviously a challenge for us,” McDermott said. “We’ll figure it out.”
Bills Officially Kick Off 2025 Campaign
The work starts on Monday, though it will be a bit longer before the practices turn physical. As SI.com’s Ralph Ventre noted, the team’s voluntary activities on Monday marked the start of the 2025 campaign though there was no actual football being played yet.
“Labeled as Phase 1, the first two weeks are solely comprised by ‘meetings, strength and conditioning, and physical rehabilitation,’ ” Ventre wrote.
The next phase runs for three weeks and includes group instruction and drills, but team drills don’t start until the final four weeks leading up to the summer.
The Bills will be welcoming a handful of new players at the end of the week, with the NFL draft kicking off with the first round on Thursday, second and third rounds on Friday and remaining four rounds on Saturday.
