Ranking the Eight Biggest Bills Rivals of All Time

It's Patriots week for the 3-0 Buffalo Bills.

If the Bills can slay their biggest contemporary AFC East rival on Sunday, they'll open up an effective 3.5-game lead on New England just four weeks into the 2026 NFL season.

But defeating those pesky Pats is rarely easy for the Bills, who lost to this very team in Orchard Park almost exactly one year ago and haven't beaten New England by more than a score since 2022.

On the brink of the rivalry's latest chapter, here is a definitive ranking of the top eight adversaries in franchise history.

8. Indianapolis Colts

AP Photo/Adrian Kraus

This probably becomes less of a rivalry with each passing season, but there's still some lingering old-school AFC East blood for fans long enough in the tooth to remember when Indianapolis was arguably Buffalo's second-biggest division rival. 

That period spanned over three decades before realignment separated the teams in 2002, but they've since played some blockbusters, including a thrilling 27-24 wild-card win by Buffalo in the 2020 playoffs and the 2017 "Snow Bowl", which ended in a Bills overtime victory in Orchard Park. 

7. Baltimore Ravens

AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File

This, on the other hand, is almost entirely modern. Both teams found their current franchise quarterbacks in the first round of the 2018 draft. Both have been perennial AFC contenders ever since. 

Throughout the era marked by the Chiefs dynasty, Buffalo and Baltimore have been fighting for status as the top challenger to that juggernaut.

Their last two matchups came down to the wire, with Buffalo coming back to win 41-40 in last year's season opener. Then, they held on to beat Baltimore 27-25 in the 2024 playoffs (their second postseason clash this decade). 

Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen have won three of the last seven MVP awards combined. Both are prime candidates again this season as Baltimore and Buffalo appear to be on another postseason collision course in a rivalry that only continues to gain steam.

6. Dallas Cowboys

AP Photo/Doug Mills

Like the Indy rivalry, this fades as those 1992 and 1993 Super Bowl losses become memories, if not secondhand accounts told to those who weren't alive to see the dynastic Cowboys crush Buffalo's championship hopes in the final years of the Jim Kelly era.

The franchises have met just seven times in the 32 seasons since those Super Bowl tilts, but many Bills fans harbor a special hatred for a glamour franchise that felt like the exact antithesis of blue-collar Buffalo during both teams' 1990s peaks.

5. New York Jets

AP Photo/Ray Stubblebine

Longevity earns the Jets this spot: the two franchises have been division adversaries since entering the AFL as charter members in 1960.

This is the opposite of the Dallas rivalry (or the Chiefs rivalry we'll look at soon) because it is based on quantity, not quality. The two have met 131 times over the course of 66 years, including once in the playoffs, when Buffalo nearly blew a 24-0 lead to Gang Green in the 1981 wild-card round.

The two have rarely been competitive at the same time, but that heavy history—amplified by their shared "New York" geographic feud—naturally produces plenty of hatred and resentment. 

4. Tennessee Titans

AP Photo/File

These two Super Bowl-less AFC rivals were originally division rivals in the AFL. So there was shared misery and history long before they broke each other's hearts in two of the most memorable playoff games in NFL history. 

The first was "The Comeback," when the Bills overcame the largest playoff deficit in NFL history to beat the then-Houston Oilers 41-38 in a 1992 wild-card game at Rich Stadium. 

Seven years later, Tennessee pulled off the Music City Miracle to stun the Bills in a wild-card victory that kicked off a Super Bowl run. 

This rivalry has since faded a bit, but four of their six meetings between 2006 and 2018 were decided by exactly one point. 

3. New England Patriots

AP Photo/Winslow Townson, File

This feud was so lopsided during the Bill Belichick era that it could hardly be considered a rivalry. As Tom Brady noted on the Chargers-Bills broadcast this past Sunday, he went 32-3 against the Bills during his two decades in New England. 

That said, the two go way back to 1960 as division foes. The rivalry might actually be peaking now as both are contenders. 

The script was officially flipped when the Bills absolutely demolished the Patriots 47-17 in the 2021 playoffs. It's since become quite competitive overall. The Bills have won six of the last 10 matchups, as each of the last six has been decided by a single-score margin.

We're likely in for another heater on Sunday as the teams meet for the 134th time since both were born in 1960.

2. Kansas City Chiefs

AP Photo/Ed Zurga

The Chiefs have undoubtedly become Buffalo's primary modern rival, as Buffalo-Kansas City has turned into the ultimate battle of the 2020s in this league. 

Since 2020, the Bills have 76 regular-season wins and the Chiefs have 75. Nobody else in the NFL has more than 65. Yet Patrick Mahomes has three rings, while Josh Allen has yet to reach a Super Bowl. 

A lot of that has to do with the fact that Mahomes and the Chiefs keep stymying the Bills in the playoffs. While Buffalo has defeated the Chiefs in each of their last five regular-season matchups, Kansas City is 4-0 against the Bills in the playoffs since 2020. 

The last three of those victories came by an average of four points, with one coming in overtime. 

Long before that, they also met with trips to the Super Bowl on the line in 1966 (Kansas City won the AFL Championship Game) and 1993 (Buffalo won the AFC Championship Game). So this isn't entirely new blood. 

1. Miami Dolphins

AP Photo/Bill Sikes, File

Miami swept Buffalo 20 consecutive times during the 1970s, setting up pure catharsis in 1980, when Bills fans tore down the Rich Stadium goalposts after Buffalo finally snapped the skid.

But the golden era of this rivalry came when Jim Kelly and Marv Levy consistently battled Dan Marino and Don Shula in the 1980s and 1990s. That's when you really felt the contrast between the Miami beaches and Buffalo snowstorms; the intensity level was often unmatched. 

They are polar opposites in geography, culture and climate. While other adversaries have had their eras of dominance, no matchup in franchise history carries deeper, more persistent venom than the one with Miami.