3 questions for Bills vs Chiefs: Will Khalil Shakir step up, should Von Miller play?

ORCHARD PARK - One thing you will never shake in Josh Allen is his faith and belief in his Buffalo Bills teammates, and he was all about that even in the gloomy aftermath of their gut-wrenching 37-34 overtime loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Nov. 26.

“I’m extremely confident in our guys,” Allen said when he was asked that day about the Bills’ sinking playoff chances. “The men that we have in this locker room, we understand where we’re at. So, we’ve got good things going.”

Allen is always going to say things like that because as the leader of the team and face of the franchise, it’s basically part of his job description. He can’t ever let his guard down and speak in a negative fashion about the team, even when there have been times this season when it was wholly appropriate.

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Whether you choose to believe him is another matter, though, because from the outside looking in, nothing about this Bills’ team leads me to believe it can rip off a five-game winning streak to close the season and punch a ticket to the postseason (or maybe a run of 4-1 that could get it there).

There are too many flaws and what’s problematic is they aren’t concentrated in one area. It would be one thing if it was just the offense, just the defense, or just the special teams, but at various times during this disappointing 6-6 start, every unit has struggled.

One week the offense has been terrible, the next the defense, and the next the special teams. The Bills have been a maddeningly inconsistent team not only week to week, but sometimes from quarter to quarter within games.

That doesn’t make them all that much different from most teams, but it certainly creates a situation that seemed unfathomable back on the first Sunday of October when they blew out the Dolphins, one where they are sitting 10th in the AFC standings and perilously close to being irrelevant in the playoff chase.

Are they suddenly going to put it all together against a schedule that includes four teams - the Chiefs Sunday in Kansas City, the Cowboys at home Dec. 17, the Chargers in Los Angeles Dec. 23, and the Dolphins in Miami on Jan. 7 - who currently have a combined record of 31-17?

“We see the type of team that we can be,” Allen said. “And we’ve talked about it internally. We understand that and we have to play our best ball on Sunday and every game that we enter into from here on out. But, again, you could talk about the losses (six by a total of just 26 points) - we’ve been close and we’ve been right there in every single game. And, if we could have played better obviously, who knows what can happen or what could have been, but we can’t focus on that right now. We can only focus on what’s going on and how to move forward.”

That focus this week, following a much-needed bye, is on Arrowhead Stadium as the Bills head there for the fifth time since January 2021 where they have won both times in the regular season, but lost both times in the playoffs.

Here are three questions heading into another must-win game for the Bills.

1. What will the Buffalo Bills do with Von Miller?

It’s entirely possible that they won’t have to do anything because the NFL could take matters into its own hands and announce this week that it is placing Miller on the commissioner-exempt list while it continues its investigation into the felony charge levied against the edge rusher last week for allegedly assaulting his pregnant girlfriend.

If Roger Goodell does so, Miller will go on paid leave and be ineligible to play until the league says he can return. Goodell didn’t need to act last week because the Bills were on their bye week, but now that they are back to work a decision should be imminent.

Whether the NFL puts him on the list or not, from a purely football perspective, there’s no way Miller should play against the Chiefs. I’ve said this for weeks but the Bills haven’t been listening - Miller’s continued usage is hurting the Bills’ defense. He’s a ghost and it’s almost like they’re playing with 10 men when he’s out there.

He has played 162 snaps in the eight games since he returned way too early from his ACL surgery and has two tackles, no sacks, and just eight QB pressures according to Pro Football Focus. And to be honest, PFF is often generous when it counts pressures, so I’m not sure there have been eight pressures from Miller.

If he’s eligible to play, Miller should still be inactive in Kansas City, and his snaps should be divvied up between far more deserving players like Leonard Floyd, Greg Rousseau, A.J. Epenesa and Shaq Lawson. Maybe even Kingsley Jonathan, too.

2. Is Khalil Shakir ready for an increased role?

This is actually already happening because the second-year wide receiver has supplanted disappointing Deonte Harty as the Bills’ No. 3 wide receiver option behind Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis, and that’s fine by me.

Shakir has been a much more useful player for Allen than Harty was, and he has stepped up nicely since tight end Dawson Knox got hurt and the Bills’ switched from a two-tight end offense to a three-receiver attack.

“When given your chances, given your opportunities, you have to perform and now that he’s been getting more, he has taken advantage of those opportunities,” coach Sean McDermott said last week. “And so I think you’ve got to give credit to both the coaches getting him more involved and then Khalil taking advantage of those opportunities.”

Since Knox went on injured reserve after the mind-numbing Patriots’ loss, Shakir has played 259 total offensive snaps in those five games and caught 17 of his 21 targets for 335 yards and one TD. For the season he has 25 catches on 30 targets (83.3 catch percentage with just one drop) for 410 yards and two TDs with eight of his receptions at least 20 yards including an 81-yard TD against the Jets

There was news about Knox on the personal front as he got engaged on the bye week, but there’s been no word about when he might return to play from his wrist surgery. The fact that the Bills were reportedly interested in signing free agent tight end Zach Ertz might be an indication that Knox isn’t ready to come back.

Signing Ertz seems unnecessary, especially the way Shakir has played as the third wideout. In the last two games with Joe Brady as the offensive coordinator, Shakir has been on the field for 77 passing snaps, 61 of those in the slot, and he has six catches for 162 yards.

The Bills should stick with 11 personnel and when they need additional run blocking, they have third-string tight end Quintin Morris or backup offensive guard David Edwards who has played that blocking tight end role numerous times already.

3. If needed, can the Bills defense get a big stop?

Obviously, the defense has been torn asunder by the injuries to Matt Milano, DaQuan Jones and Tre’Davious White, plus the loss of other players for a game here or a game there such as Rousseau, Ed Oliver, Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer, Christian Benford, Dane Jackson, Kaiir Elam and Taylor Rapp.

But that doesn’t change the fact that Buffalo’s record would be significantly better if McDermott’s defense hadn’t collapsed at crunch time in the losses to the Jets, Patriots, Broncos and Eagles - all games the Bills led in the fourth quarter - and very nearly did so in the wins over the Giants and Buccaneers.

You can even include the Jaguars game because in that one, the defense allowed a 93-yard TD drive midway through the fourth quarter, and after the Bills got within 18-13 with 4:03 left, the defense failed again and allowed a five-play, 75-yard TD drive that iced it for Jacksonville.

Now the defense is confronted with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, a team that has been surprisingly mediocre on offense, but a team that, if it’s trailing late and gets possession of the ball, can still make the hair on your neck stand at attention.

In a game the Bills desperately need to win, the offense will be up against a very good Chiefs defense that has carried 8-4 Kansas City to a two-game lead in the AFC West. This probably won’t be a shootout similar to the “13 seconds” playoff game a couple years back, meaning Buffalo’s defense has to step up in a huge spot if the Bills are going to leave Arrowhead above .500 and still realistically in the playoff chase.

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana and on Threads @salmaiorana1. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out twice a week during the season, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills vs Chiefs questions: Will Shakir step up, will Von Miller play?