6 Key Buffalo Bills Stats Entering Week 1 of the 2026 NFL Season

The Buffalo Bills officially kick off a highly anticipated season Sunday against the Houston Texans.

With Joe Brady taking over as head coach and fresh faces across the roster and coaching staff, Buffalo enters 2026 with familiar Super Bowl expectations alongside plenty of new questions.

Before Week 1 gets underway, here are half a dozen key stats from the 2025 campaign to contextualize what lies ahead.

Sixteen

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Joe Brady

What It Represents: The number of 40-yard gains for the Buffalo offense in 2025, which ranked first in the NFL. The Bills scored nine 40-plus-yard touchdowns, while nobody else in the AFC registered more than six scores from that distance.

What It Means: That unit still had some major home-run power, even while becoming more run-oriented than in previous campaigns. 

What Has Changed: Joe Brady's offense remains in place with most of the key cogs, following his promotion to head coach, but Pete Carmichael joins as offensive coordinator and quarterback Josh Allen will have a new top receiver in DJ Moore. 

What Comes Next: Brady will continue to call plays, so the Bills should expect the status quo to some degree. That said, six of those 16 explosive gains were runs from James Cook (four) and Josh Allen (two), which is phenomenal but less of a guarantee. They may need more deep passing plays. A lot could depend on what they get out of Moore. The 29-year-old has 23 career 40-yard catches but just three since the start of 2024.

1-3

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Jim Leonhard

What It Represents: Buffalo's record in games against fellow playoff teams that were decided by one score. They beat the Patriots by four in a December thriller but also lost to New England, Houston and Philadelphia by a combined eight points. 

What It Means: That, combined with an overtime playoff loss to the Broncos in which they led by four with one minute remaining in regulation, has led to the impression that the team lacked killer instinct toward the end of the Sean McDermott era.

What Has Changed: McDermott is gone. Brady is running the show, while Jim Leonhard takes over a defense that often failed to put games away. 

What Comes Next: Leonhard's D is expected to attack more, which is more than half the battle in terms of avoiding complacency. It'll be interesting to see if Brady and Carmichael also adjust their offensive approach after that unit sometimes failed to step on throats in 2025.

5.2 

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James Cook

What It Represents: James Cook's yards-per-attempt average while the Bills led the league in rushing yardage and touchdowns as the continuation of a philosophical shift in 2025. 

What It Means: Buffalo actually scored fewer points than in 2024 but dominated time of possession and had more overall control of games as a result of this approach. 

What Has Changed: A strong, experienced offensive line was critical. Cook was by no means a tackle-breaking machine, and in fact, a lot of his damage was done with 3.0 yards per carry before contact (he ranked 13th among qualifiers with a so-so 2.2 yards per carry after contact). But now, with veteran left guard David Edwards gone, he'll be working behind a green starter in Alec Anderson. 

What Comes Next: We'll see if Brady and Carmichael stick to that approach, but there's little indication they'll stray. The bigger question is how Anderson will perform with the incumbents around him, and whether we'll see veteran Austin Corbett in there at some point. 

112

AP Photo/Bart Young

Josh Allen

What It Represents: The number of rushing attempts (including 33 in the red zone) by Allen in 2025, marking the seventh consecutive season in which the quarterback has registered more than 100 rushes (something only six running backs have done in that span). 

What It Means: Allen is a beast who consistently carries this team on his back, as evidenced by his 18 rushing first downs and six touchdown runs in the fourth quarter of one-score games the last two seasons (compared to five first downs and one touchdown under those circumstances from the team's star running back, Cook). 

What Has Changed: Allen turned 30 this offseason.

What Comes Next: Ideally, another healthy season for a workhorse who hasn't missed a start since his rookie season but has been exposed to a wild amount of wear and tear this decade. In terms of offensive adjusted games lost, the Bills had the healthiest offense in the NFL last season. They'll need to hope that the injury gods continue to favor them in 2026. 

66.2

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Pete Carmichael

What It Represents: The percentage of Bills red-zone trips that resulted in touchdowns, which ranked third in the NFL (after ranking second in 2024). They were the only offense in the NFL to hit 66 percent in the red zone and register a third-down success rate above 44 percent (44.1). 

What It Means: The Bills remain extremely good at extending and finishing drives, which explains why they settled for a league-low 21 field-goal attempts and punted just 3.2 times per game in 2025. 

What Has Changed: Really just the addition of Moore and Carmichael. 

What Comes Next: Ideally, a lot more of the same. If opposing defenses finally find ways to get this offense off the field, if the offense gets bogged down trying to force-feed Moore, or if the injury bug finally bites, trouble could follow.

41.4

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Bradley Chubb

What It Represents: The percentage of Bills defensive third downs that resulted in conversions, which ranked in the bottom nine in the NFL for the second year in a row. They also have the league's seventh-worst red-zone defense over the course of the last two seasons. 

What It Means: The Bills struggled mightily to get off the field and close out defensive series, which explains why opponents rarely settled for three points—attempting a league-low 50 field goals against Buffalo since the start of 2024

What Has Changed: Leonhard takes over for McDermott, while Bradley Chubb, C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Dee Alford highlight the additions to a defense that has seen significant turnover. 

What Comes Next: A new approach with new faces at all three levels of the defense, which the Bills hope will lead to more stops in key moments in 2026.