Buffalo Bills Hidden Gems: 3 Secret Superstars on the 2025 roster

Who are the Bills’ most underrated players heading into the 2025 season?

Before Jan. 26, 2025, the worst two-word profanity any Buffalo sports fan could ever imagine was, of course, “Wide Right.”

After Jan. 26, 2025, that was replaced by “Fourth Down.” Or “NFL Officiating,” perhaps.

Josh Allen’s allegedly missed fourth-down conversion run with 13:01 left in the Bills’ eventual 32-29 AFC Championship loss was obviously the latest agonizing story in this franchise’s oh-so-close Super Bowl shortfalls. Right up there with 13 seconds and the overtime problem.

The good news, such as it was, was that 2024 was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Buffalo Bills, and they damn near made it all the way to the biggest game. So, now what? The Bills have a stacked roster with a defense-heavy draft. Sean McDermott has proven beyond all available doubt that he’s one of the NFL’s best head coaches, general manager Brandon Beane’s personnel acumen is above reproach, offensive coordinator Joe Brady looks like a future head coach in waiting, and the defensive staff may have some interesting and atypical things in store for the new season.

It’s all good. But at this point, it’s all about making it to, and winning, the Super Bowl. To that end, we continue our “Hidden Gems” series in which we detail the prospects of one underrated veteran, one underrated free-agent acquisition, and one underrated draft pick, with the team that is more desperate than any other at this point for the brass ring.

With these three hidden gems in tow, maybe this is the year that the Buffalo Bills actually grab it.

Underrated veteran: OL Alec Anderson

Alec Anderson has certainly been unheralded throughout his NFL journey. The UCLA alum signed with the BIlls as an undrafted free agent in 2022, and didn’t see a single snap in his first two professional seasons. Then, offensive coordinator Joe Brady decided in the 2024 season to go heavy with six offensive linemen to a degree we’ve rarely seen before, and Brady made Anderson his guy for that specific sixth-man task. Buffalo had run more 6OL stuff both in the run and pass games than any other team in the 2023 season with David Edwards as the sixth man, but in his first full season as the OC, Brady doubled down with Anderson as the main man, and to great effect.

The 2024 Bills ran the ball 141 times with six offensive linemen; the Tennessee Titans ranked second with 66. On those 141 attempts, Buffalo gained 721 yards with 450 yards after contact, a 5.1 yards per carry average, and eight touchdowns. Anderson wasn’t just an innocent bystander on those plays; his physical style was a primary construct of those run plays working when it was time to ragdoll opposing defensive linemen to the play side.

But the interesting wrinkle Brady brought to the offense was how often – and how well – the Bills created explosive plays in the passing game with six offensive linemen. It’s not what you’d expect if you’re a defense, which is perhaps why it worked so well. The 2024 Bills had 48 dropbacks and 45 passing attempts with six offensive linemen (the Denver Broncos ranked second in both with 28 and 27), completing 28 of those attempts for 364 yards, five touchdowns, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 106.2. Three of those attempts were on passes of 20 or more air yards; two were completed for 51 yards and 44 air yards. We would definitely like to see more of this, as well – especially with Anderson holding up his end in pass protection.

“It allows us to do a lot of things that we want to do,” Brady said in mid-January of the Jumbo package, and Anderson’s role in it.. “We’ve been fortunate to have Alec all year.”

The Bills signed Anderson to a new one-year contract in February, so we should expect more Jumbo shenanigans in 2025.

Underrated free-agent signing: WR Josh Palmer

As much as Josh Allen has an obviously atomic arm, the Bills’ deep passing game was a mixed bag in 2024. Allen led the NFL with 87 passing attempts of 20 or more air yards, completing 33 for 1,055 yards, five touchdowns, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 93.8. Keon Coleman led the team with six deep catches on 22 targets for 176 yards and one touchdown. To put that in perspective, George Pickens led the league with 17 deep catches, and 15 receivers had 10 or more last season.

The Bills didn’t do anything in the draft to accentuate their receiver room beyond the selection of Maryland’s Kaden Prather in the seventh round, and Prather is more of a big target than a truly explosive one. That could be because, with the addition in free agency of former Los Angeles Chargers receiver Joshua Palmer on a three-year, $29 million deal with $18 million guaranteed, the team felt that it had done enough to solidify that side of things.

The tape and the metrics would agree. Last season, Palmer led the Chargers with eight deep catches on 18 targets for 250 yards and a touchdown. More could come for Palmer in this offense.

“Love Josh’s game,” Beane said after the signing. “I would say the first thing, [he’s an] excellent route-runner. He’s around 4.5 [speed], but I’d say his play speed’s faster. Build speed when he’s up and running. He can play inside. He can play out. He’s a smart player. We look for that in this offense, so that Joe [Brady] can move these guys around.”

Palmer is a good technician overall with a full understanding of the NFL route tree, so there’s more to him than just big plays downfield. But his addition to the offense most likely could and should start there.

Underrated draft pick: CB Dorian Strong

Where would Virginia Tech cornerback Dorian Strong have been selected had he declared before the 2024 draft? Impossible to say, but he would have done so after a 2023 season in which he allowed just nine catches on 33 targets for 83 yards, 26 yards after the catch, one touchdown, three interceptions, seven pass breakups, and a preposterous opponent passer rating of 11.6.

In any event, the 6’1, 185-pound Strong decided to stay with the Hokies for his fifth and senior season, and while his 2024 campaign wasn’t bad at all, it didn’t quite live up to those amazing numbers from the season before. Last year, Strong allowed 27 catches on 58 targets for 408 yards, 174 yards after the catch, one touchdown, two interceptions, six pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 61.6.

So, how in the world was this guy available with the first overall pick in the sixth round, where the Bills happily snagged him up?

Based on the tape, Strong is a better man/match defender than he is totally comfortable in off and more passive zone concepts. If he has to give ground to the receiver and then play catch-up, he will allow easy receptions underneath. But when he’s tasked to follow his target through the route, his athleticism and agility allow him to stay step-for-step, and though his 76 ⅛” wingspan is mid-percentile and nothing to write home about, Strong is great at timing his hits and deflections to prevent big plays downfield. The 4.5-second 40-yard dash with a 1.55-second split didn’t help Strong’s case either, though he’s faster on the field than the timed speed shows.

I’m not the only one convinced regarding Strong’s man/match abilities – it helps when your own scouting report jibes with Greg Cosell’s.

“I do think he has some nickel flex – we’ll check that out, but he would be an outside corner for us to start out,” Beane said of Strong’s ultimate landing place before he was asked about Strong’s assertion that he loves to play press coverage. “I mean, that’s a guy [who ] loves getting in another dude’s face, and feels comfortable when [he does] that. You know, you’re putting yourself in a vulnerable position, because if you whiff at the line, or you’re getting your back to the ball [in trail technique], you’ve got to make sure you don’t have ball panic when you get out of phase from an interference standpoint. It’s not easy. It’s a good skill set – not everyone has it as we know, and the coaches will get a good feel for him, and try to put him in his best position to succeed.”

Why is this important? Last season, the Bills had at least one cornerback in press coverage on 32% of their snaps, which was right in the NFL’s middle-of-the-pack. The Jacksonville Jaguars ranked first at 44%, and the 2024 Jaguars defense was put together by defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen, who is the Bills’ new Senior Defensive Assistant. In 2023, Nielsen was the Atlanta Falcons’ defensive coordinator, and the Falcons led the NFL that season with at least one cornerback in press coverage at a 41% rate.

At the 2025 scouting combine, I asked Beane about the Bills’ possible move to more press coverage.

“I think you’re always just looking to grow,” Beane said of that in general, and of Nielsen’s addition in particular. “The growth mindset, we talk about it. And so anytime you can add people to your staff that come from different programs, different philosophies, you do that. And maybe even have people on your roster that you say, ‘Hey, we still think we’ve played it more like this, but,’ to your example, maybe we’ve played more zone, but we feel like,`Hey, we have a player that could play a little more press-man or whatever the situation.’

“But I think it’s more from that standpoint than necessarily a philosophy change or anything like that. You’re always looking to — whether it’s scouting, coaching, whatever it is — find new trends, new ideas, ways to be creative as you face some of these big opponents.

“It’s one thing as we know to win your division, get in the playoffs. To win in the AFC and to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl, it’s a gauntlet to go through, and that’s not going to change anytime soon.”

So, it all goes back to finally getting to the end of that gauntlet, as should obviously be the focus for this franchise.

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions).