Colonel William A. Phillips

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The 2005 Buffalo Bills season was their 46th in the National Football League. The team was unable to improve upon their previous season’s output of 9–7, instead finishing 5–11.[1] This was the sixth consecutive season in which the team missed the playoffs.

Mike Mularkey coached the Bills for his second year.[note 1]

Offseason

Drew Bledsoe, who had been the team’s quarterback from 2002 to 2004, was released by the Bills after the 2004 season to make way for backup quarterback J. P. Losman. It was the second time that Bledsoe’s team had let him go for a younger quarterback. When Bledsoe was later signed by the Dallas Cowboys, he expressed bitterness with the Bills for the move, stating "I can't wait to go home and dress my kids in little stars and get rid of the other team’s [Buffalo’s] stuff."[2]

The Bills failed to re-sign defensive tackle Pat Williams, who would sign with the Minnesota Vikings for the 2005 season. The Bills also lost starting offensive tackle Jonas Jennings to the San Francisco 49ers.

Draft

Buffalo had six draft picks in the 2005 draft. The Bills traded their only first round pick in 2005 to the Dallas Cowboys to move up in the previous draft, a pick they used to draft J. P. Losman.

2005 Buffalo Bills draft
Round Pick Player Position College Notes
2 55 Roscoe Parrish  WR Miami (FL)
3 86 Kevin Everett  TE Miami (FL)
4 122 Duke Preston  C Illinois
5 156 Eric King  CB Wake Forest
6 197 Justin Geisinger  OG Vanderbilt
7 236 Lionel Gates  RB Louisville
      Made roster    †   Pro Football Hall of Fame    *   Made at least one Pro Bowl during career

[3]

Undrafted free agents

2005 Undrafted Free Agents of note
Player Position College
Brad Cieslak Tight end Northern Illinois
Liam Ezekiel Linebacker Northeastern
Jim Leonhard Safety Wisconsin

Personnel

Staff

2005 Buffalo Bills staff

Front office

  • Owner/founder – Ralph Wilson
  • President/general manager – Tom Donahoe
  • Assistant general manager – Tom Modrak
  • Director of pro personnel – John Guy
  • Coordinator of college scouting – Doug Majeski

Head coaches

Offensive coaches

Defensive coaches
  • Defensive coordinator – Jerry Gray
  • Defensive line – Tim Krumrie
  • Linebackers – Don Blackmon
  • Defensive backs – Steve Szabo
  • Defensive assistant – Chuck Lester

Special teams coaches

Strength and conditioning

  • Strength and conditioning coordinator – Brad Roll
  • Assistant strength and conditioning – John Allaire

Roster

2005 Buffalo Bills final roster
Quarterbacks

Running backs

Wide receivers

Tight ends

Offensive linemen

Defensive linemen

Linebackers

Defensive backs

Special teams

Reserve lists


Practice squad


Rookies in italics
53 active, 8 inactive, 6 practice squad

Schedule

In addition to their regular games with AFC East rivals, the Bills played teams from the AFC West and NFC South as per the schedule rotation, and also played intraconference games against the Bengals and the Texans based on divisional positions from 2004.

Week Date Opponent Result Record Attendance
1 September 11 Houston Texans W 22–7 1–0 71,781
2 September 18 at Tampa Bay Buccaneers L 3–19 1–1 64,777
3 September 25 Atlanta Falcons L 16–24 1–2 72,032
4 October 2 at New Orleans Saints (San Antonio) L 7–19 1–3 58,688
5 October 9 Miami Dolphins W 20–14 2–3 72,160
6 October 16 New York Jets W 27–17 3–3 72,045
7 October 23 at Oakland Raiders L 17–38 3–4 42,779
8 October 30 at New England Patriots L 16–21 3–5 68,756
9 Bye
10 November 13 Kansas City Chiefs W 14–3 4–5 72,093
11 November 20 at San Diego Chargers L 10–48 4–6 65,602
12 November 27 Carolina Panthers L 9–13 4–7 71,440
13 December 4 at Miami Dolphins L 23–24 4–8 72,051
14 December 11 New England Patriots L 7–35 4–9 71,810
15 December 17 Denver Broncos L 17–28 4–10 71,887
16 December 24 at Cincinnati Bengals W 37–27 5–10 65,485
17 January 1 at New York Jets L 26–30 5–11 76,822
Note: Intra-divisional games are in bold text.

Standings

AFC East
W L T PCT DIV CONF PF PA STK
(4) New England Patriots 10 6 0 .625 5–1 7–5 379 338 L1
Miami Dolphins 9 7 0 .563 3–3 7–5 318 317 W6
Buffalo Bills 5 11 0 .313 2–4 5–7 271 367 L1
New York Jets 4 12 0 .250 2–4 3–9 240 355 W1

Season summary

Week 1 vs Texans

Week One: Houston Texans (0–0) at Buffalo Bills (0–0)
Period 1 2 34Total
Texans 0 7 007
Bills 6 13 0322

at Ralph Wilson Stadium, Orchard Park, New York

Game information
  • The Bills wore throwback AFL "standing buffalo" helmets
  • J.P. Losman 1st career start

Notes

  1. ^ Second of two total years; Mularkey would resign from the Bills after the 2005 season

References