Winners in four of their last six games, Buffalo has some momentum heading into their final two regular season matchups. All season long individual accomplishments have taken a back seat to team goals, but it's hard to ignore that three players on offense have a chance to pull off a yardage feat that hasn't happened all that often in team history.
Ryan Fitzpatrick, Fred Jackson and Stevie Johnson have a chance to pull off the relatively rare feat of posting 3,000 yards passing, 1,000 yards rushing and 1,000 yards receiving in the same season.
A trio of offensive players for the Bills hasn't made that happen since the 2002 season when Drew Bledsoe, Travis Henry and both Eric Moulds and Peerless Price all surpassed 3,000 passing yards, 1,000 rushing yards, and 1,000 receiving yards respectively.
It's only happened four other times in franchise history prior to 2002, with Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed responsible for three of them (1989, 1991, 1994). Joe Ferguson, Joe Cribbs and Frank Lewis had the other in 1981.
Currently just two other sets of teammates in the league have met those marks. Atlanta's Matt Ryan, Michael Turner and Roddy White, and Houston's Matt Schaub, Arian Foster and Andre Johnson have all reached 3,000 and 1,000 yards this season.
For the Bills the feat would be a bit more impressive considering that Ryan Fitzpatrick did not make his first start until Week 3 and Fred Jackson shared carries early in the season. Jackson did not take over the bulk of the rushing load until Week 7.
"It would be huge," he said. "Again there's not a lot of bright spots for us to look to during the season and that would be something I could look to. With the slow start this season and still get there would be kind of something to hang my hat on."
Jackson has 811 yards rushing on the season with two games to play. It's the exact number of rushing yards he had last season heading into the final two games of the year. His 212-yard rushing performance in the season finale last season against Indianapolis got him over 1,000 rushing yards for the year (1,032).
Facing the 15th and fourth ranked run defenses of the Patriots and the Jets will make this season's challenge to get there a bit tougher. As a starter against New England, Jackson averages 4.6 yards per carry and 91 rushing yards per game. He'll need to do better than that Sunday knowing in his two career starts against the Jets he's averaged 31 rushing yards per game with just a 3.1 yards per carry average.
Jackson could have easily eclipsed the 1,000-yard barrier this season had he been the starter from the beginning, but a crowded backfield early in the season kept that from happening. Buffalo's feature back is just happy that things worked out in his favor in the end.
"It's very satisfying to be where I am and what my role is now," he said. "Although it didn't start the way I wanted it to, that's some of the things you face. The best thing I can do now is continue to work and try to get some of those self-goals that you have. At the same time, the overall thing is to try to get 'W's for this team."
The odds are a lot better that Fitzpatrick and Johnson will reach 3,000 passing yards and 1,000 receiving yards. Buffalo's quarterback needs only 251 passing yards in his final two games for what would be the first 3,000-yard passing season of his career.
Fitzpatrick threw for 247 yards alone in his first start of the season against the Patriots in Week 3. Buffalo dropped a 38-30 decision in a shootout loss to New England.
For Buffalo's signal caller however, that 3,000 passing yard plateau is not something he's dwelling on.
"I don't think about that at all," he said. "With those milestones you celebrate them when they happen because they are impressive and important. And a lot of them are celebrated as a team for guys that accomplish what they accomplish."
Johnson is the most likely to make good on reaching 1,000 yards. The third-year receiver has put up 1,000 yards in a season before doing it his senior season at Kentucky when he posted 1,041. Sitting just 57 receiving yards away from his first 1,000-yard season in the NFL naturally has him excited.
"I've thought about it because it'll be something big just like with Freddy," Johnson said. "I'm pretty sure he has some goals that he wants to accomplish. And with me coming in as a seventh-rounder I thought about how that'll be pretty cool if I had 1,000 yards. That's in the back of mind, but first is to get a win. And if I get those yards then that's bonus credit."
