Ranking the 5 Best Buffalo Bills Players of All Time (2024)

The Buffalo Bills have delivered their fans plenty of heartbreak over the years, but they’ve also brought their fair share of great players to Western New York.

Whether it was on the AFL Championship teams, the struggling squads in their early days in the NFL, the 1990s Super Bowl (losing) juggernauts, or today’s Josh Allen-led rosters, the franchise has always had interesting players, no matter what their record.

After back-to-back AFL championships in 1964 and 1965, the Bills joined the league during the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. Since then, the franchise has had its fair share of ups and downs, most notably making (and losing) four straight Super Bowls from 1990 to 1993.

While this list of the best Buffalo Bills players of all time is dominated by those famed early '90s teams, it also includes a star from the '70s and a modern-day superstar.

1 O.J. Simpson

While Bills fans might not want to acknowledge it, O.J. Simpson's exploits on the field in the 1970s make him the best player in franchise history

Bills fans won’t want to hear it, but the truth of the matter is that Orenthal James Simpson is the best player in team history.

As problematic as Simpson was as a person once his playing days were done, he was just that good on the field in the NFL. The No. 1 overall pick in the 1969 NFL Draft, “The Juice” played nine seasons in Buffalo, racking up 10,183 rushing yards and 57 rushing touchdowns.

Simpson struggled during his first three seasons, as head coaches John Rauch and Harvey Johnson failed to figure out the best way to use him. However, when Lou Saban took over in 1972, Nick’s dad unleashed his running back on arguably the greatest half-decade stretch in NFL history.

From 1972 to 1976, Simpson made five Pro Bowls and five All-Pro teams and finished in the top four of Offensive Player of the Year voting five times and the top four of the MVP voting four times. He also led the NFL in rushing yards in four of those seasons and all-purpose yards in three.

The 1973 campaign was the pièce de resistance. Simpson became the first player in NFL history to rush for over 2,000 yards in a single season (2,003), averaging a staggering 143.1 yards in 14 games en route to winning MVP and OPOY.

Sadly, in 2024, you can’t talk about the late O.J. Simpson without also mentioning that he was a likely double-murderer and a convicted kidnapper and armed robber.

That said, from a pure football perspective, that incredible five-season stretch makes him the best player in Bills history.

2 Bruce Smith

The Bills DE was dominant for a long period of time and is still the NFL's all-time sack leader

The second-best player in Bills' history did things much differently than O.J. Simpson on the field, and not just because he played defense. Bruce Smith makes this list not because of an astronomical stretch but because of sustained excellence over a long period of time.

Another No. 1 overall pick, Smith joined the Bills from Virginia Tech in the 1985 NFL Draft and became the anchor of a defense that helped lead the franchise to a record four straight Super Bowl appearances.

Over his 15 seasons in Buffalo, Smith posted double-digit sacks 12 times. He only missed the mark in his rookie season, then in 1991, when he only played five games due to injury, and in his final Bills campaign in 1999 at the age of 36.

And he did it all as a 3-4 defensive end, a position known more for stout run stuffers than all-time great sack masters.

All told, Smith took down opposing QBs 171.0 times while with Buffalo, which earned him 11 Pro Bowl appearances, 11 All-Pro nods, and two Defensive Player of the Year Awards. He is also, to this day, second all-time in playoff sacks with 14.5.

Those two DPOY trophies came six seasons apart, in 1990 and 1996, which illustrates how good Smith was for such a long stretch.

Bruce Smith wasn’t flashy; he was just dominant, which may be why he doesn’t always get the credit he deserves as an all-time great defender. But with 200.0 sacks to his name, he is still the NFL's career leader and will continue to be for a long time.

3 Jim Kelly

The conductor of the K-Gun offense may not have won the big one, but what he accomplished can't be ignored

The face of those early 1990s Bills team is Jim Kelly, and that — as much as his stats on the field — make him the third-best player in Buffalo’s history.

Kelly hails from Western Pennsylvania, but by 1983, the Miami Hurricanes quarterback was way more South Beach than Steel City. That’s why he turned down the Bills when they drafted him at No. 14 overall in the 1983 draft in favor of the USFL’s Houston Gamblers.

However, “Machine Gun” Kelly made his way to the NFL by 1986 and morphed back into that rough and tough Rust Belt guy he was growing up in East Brady, PA.

Kelly played in a golden generation of QBs, and he never won the big one like Joe Montana. He didn’t have the athleticism of John Elway or the quick release of Dan Marino. But running the revolutionary no-huddle K-Gun offense, Kelly was a maestro in the shotgun.

He only led the league in touchdown passes once (33 in 1991) and made five Pro Bowls and just two All-Pro teams, but taking his franchise to four straight Super Bowls is a feat that may never be duplicated, and that is what puts him third on this list.

4 Andre Reed

The ultimate professional didn't get the accolades of some of his counterparts, but he was vital to the Bills

Jim Kelly likely wouldn’t be on this list without his No. 1 target, wide receiver Andre Reed.

Reed never made a First-Team All-Pro squad with wideouts like Jerry Rice, Sterling Sharpe, Michael Irvin, Andre Rison, and Herman Moore holding down most of those spots in the early '90s, but he put up 13,095 yards and 86 touchdowns in 15 seasons in Buffalo. And he did earn two Second-Team selections, so it wasn't as if he was never recognized for his efforts.

The 1985 fourth-round pick out of Kutztown University was among the best pass-catchers in the league for a decade and a half, and that deserves recognition.

5 Josh Allen

Josh Allen is only scratching the surface of his career, but he's already put his name among the Bills greats

With apologies to Thurman Thomas, Josh Allen edges out “The Thurman-ator” as the fifth-best player in Bills history just six seasons into his NFL career.

From the time the Bills’ Big Four of Thomas, Kelly, Reed, and Smith retired in the late 1990s to the 2018 NFL Draft, Buffalo was arguably one of the worst franchises in all of North American professional sports.

That all changed when the big man from Firebaugh, California, showed up that year.

Like Kelly, Allen is smack in the middle of another golden QB generation, and while he hasn’t won like Patrick Mahomes, racked up MVPs like Lamar Jackson, or even made a Super Bowl like Joe Burrow, he has revitalized the organization. And with his incredible running and passing ability, Allen has established himself as the most dangerous all-around signal-caller in the NFL.

Allen already has 22,703 passing yards, 167 passing touchdowns, 3,611 rushing yards, and 53 rushing touchdowns in his six seasons. He’s also led the Bills to AFC East domination, taking home the last four consecutive divisional crowns.

When the dust settles on the Josh Allen era in Buffalo, the QB could easily be the best player in franchise history and the only Bills signal-caller with a Lombardi Trophy. For now, though, he comes in fifth on this list.

All stats courtesy of Pro Football Reference unless stated otherwise.