OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — Stefon Diggs, Gabe Davis, Patrick Queen and Jadeveon Clowney.
Those are just a few of the key players Buffalo and Baltimore lost last offseason, when free agency and salary cap constraints threatened to knock both teams down a notch.
Instead, the Bills and Ravens are right back in the second round of the playoffs, and one will advance to the AFC championship game.
Their matchup Sunday night centers around quarterbacks Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, but it's also vindication of sorts for two front offices that were able to keep their teams in Super Bowl contention despite having to reload on the fly. It was easy to imagine the Bills and Ravens both taking a step back, but that hasn't really happened.
“I think the Ravens do a great job drafting and getting the key pieces in free agency,” Baltimore linebacker Malik Harrison said. “In the beginning of the year, we were still trying to figure things out, but once we started clicking, I don't think we skipped a beat.”
One lesson of this Baltimore-Buffalo matchup is that if you have a quarterback playing at an MVP level, you can afford to lose a few players around him. But it's not always that simple. To make it back to this point, the Ravens and Bills had to prioritize some positions and take an occasional gamble at others.
The Ravens, for instance, lost three starters on the offensive line and didn't make any major signings at that position. They drafted a tackle in the second round in Roger Rosengarten. Daniel Faalele, a fourth-round pick in 2022, moved from tackle to guard and has started every game this season.
“Daniel Faalele's awesome. I thought he was a really good tackle, and he's been an awesome guard, too,” said Baltimore's Patrick Mekari, who has started at all five offensive line spots in his career.
The Ravens also lost Queen, a star linebacker, to division rival Pittsburgh. Clowney tied a career high with 9 1/2 sacks for Baltimore in 2023, then joined the Carolina Panthers. The Ravens have had issues in pass defense at times, but they ended up ranking second in the NFL in sacks and first in run defense this season.
Plus, Baltimore wasn't completely incapable of adding players amid all those departures. Running back Derrick Henry has been one of the most successful free agent signings in the league, joining forces with Jackson to give the Ravens a devastating ground attack.
“They’re hard to stop. It was a good acquisition on their part," Bills coach Sean McDermott said. "Just that two-dimensional type of weaponry, if you will, is tough on people.”
Buffalo had plenty of concerns of its own after last season. The Bills lost their top two receiving threats when Diggs was traded and Davis left via free agency. Center Mitch Morse didn't return, either, and the secondary lost safeties Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde.
Buffalo has replaced quality with quantity at receiver. Khalil Shakir caught 76 passes — nearly double his previous career high for the Bills — for 821 yards. Nine players for the Bills had at least 250 yards receiving, including rookie wideout Keon Coleman, who produced 556.
And like the Ravens, Buffalo was able to make a big-name addition at a key offensive position, acquiring receiver Amari Cooper from Cleveland in a mid-October trade.
“Amari's a good player. He was a good addition for us," McDermott said. "Our offense goes kind of sum of the parts, right? He's one of the pieces for us, and he's done a nice job since we were able to add him.”
Whoever wins Sunday's game at Buffalo will be a victory from the Super Bowl, but although the loser will be left disappointed, the last 12 months shows that no matter what challenges lie ahead in the offseason, neither of these organizations should be dismissed going forward.
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