ESPN insider's Bills prediction will make Buffalo fans very happy

This could be the year.

That's a common refrain for Bills Mafia, and thus far, it hasn't come to fruition for the Buffalo Bills.

But maybe, just maybe, this could really be the year.

The AFC isn't its usual gauntlet, at least on paper. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs won't be in the playoffs. Neither will Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals.

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The Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson would be out if the postseason started today, too.

All of that helps add up to why ESPN's Dan Graziano, in a new article published Wednesday, has predicted the Bills to win the AFC and go to the Super Bowl.

"We still don't know yet whether they're going to the playoffs as a wild-card team or as division champs for the sixth year in a row (or at all, technically)," Graziano writes. "But assuming they're there, they would certainly be the most playoff-tested of the likely AFC teams. Quarterback Josh Allen has 13 career postseason starts and seven wins, both of which would be the second highest in the current AFC field behind Aaron Rodgers' 21 and 10, respectively. (This holds even if Rivers drags the Colts into the playoffs, as Rivers has 12 career postseason starts and five wins.)"

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Buffalo would simply be familiar with a lot of the rigors that guys like Drake Maye, Bo Nix and Trevor Lawrence wouldn't be.

"The Bills are aware of the experience difference between them and the rest of the AFC field, and they would point out with no disrespect intended that we don't know how teams such as the Patriots, Jaguars and Broncos are going to do in the playoff pressure cooker," Graziano writes. "The Bills feel pretty confident they know what it's going to be like -- even if they have to go on the road."

Is this a jinx? Probably not. How do you jinx a team that's never won the Super Bowl in the first place?

The Bills will know they have a real chance here. It's up to them to seize it.

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