The Buffalo Bills have a decision to make

Which individual should this franchise run through? The choice should be easy after a fifth straight crushing playoff loss.

The team’s best player this century will not storm the offices of Sean McDermott or Terry Pegula this week. We know that much. We know the farm kid from Firebaugh, Calif., is not confrontational. Josh Allen is here to throw the ball a mile high, run through your face, flex, strut, “establish the fact,” as one ex-teammate put, “that he’s the biggest alpha male dog quarterback in the history of pro football.”

Yet, that same alpha snatching the souls of opponents does not carry himself like his alpha contemporaries after the whistle. He doesn’t shoot death stares at wide receivers or scream at coaches. Allen sincerely views himself as one of 53, a major reason why Buffalo Bills teammates have loved the guy since Day 1. This is a rare quality in the elite of the elites. But this can also get frustrating at times. One ex-Bill used to be blunt with his quarterback, telling his pal he needed to drop his proverbial, uh, genitalia on the table to remind his boss  boss around here.

Allen never would. Allen likely never will.

But this is unquestionably the moment he should.

If there ever was a year to get Patrick Mahomes, this was it. The Bills finally forced the Chiefs to play in their house and… nothing changed. They lost, 27-24. So, here we are again. A fifth straight playoff defeat in the prime years of a Hall-of-Fame talent crystallizes the Bills’ reality for all to see. Is the end goal division titles? If so, party up. Put on that AFC East Champs shirt, light yourself on fire and hurl your body through a table. The mission, in 2023, was accomplished. I’ve got good news, too. In 2024, Buffalo will again account for the 44 percent of AFC teams that make the playoffs. Another heroic dash to the tournament is imminent.

Those suffering from Drought Brain — terrified of another dark age — will soon nestle into another blanket of excuses and swiftly demonize any criticism of team, of coach.

There’s always been two ways to view today’s Bills. Group No. 1 views this as a team with a balled-up fist banging on that Super Bowl door, bound to knock it down. This is how the organization is sold at press conferences. Group No. 2 sees a window closing. Group No. 2 knows the quarterback cannot snatch souls forever and — correctly — wants to see coaching and management that maximizes Josh Allen while he’s

This remains a team that incoherently schottenheimers through its head coach instead of its $258 million-dollar quarterback. There are a million conversations worth having on these Bills, but everything starts here.

The calculus should have changed with the rise of Allen. It has not.

The calculus should’ve been painfully obvious as Mahomes became the unquestioned greatest football player on the planet. It has not.

The run to 11-6 was a hoot. But all this season did was accelerate the Bills toward one very uncomfortable, very necessary decision: Do you The wheels won’t fall off under McDermott. He’s a solid regular-season defensive coach. More than capable of joining the 44 Percenters year-in and year-out and maybe that’s enough for a franchise breaking ground on a new stadium. But it’s a choice that’s doomed to fail every January.

If the latest loss to Kansas City doesn’t ramp up urgency, nothing will.