The 2002 season was the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...

' 43rd as a franchise and 33rd in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

. The Bills acquired veteran

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Drew Bledsoe from the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

on draft weekend in exchange for Buffalo's first-round pick in the 2003 draft, (the Bills later gained a first-round pick via a sign-and-trade of receiver

Peerless Price Peerless LeCross Price (born October 27, 1976) is a former American football wide receiver who played nine seasons in the National Football League (NFL). Price played college football for the University of Tennessee Volunteers and was drafted ...

, coming off a breakout season, to the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

for their first-round pick in the 2003 draft). Bledsoe brought instant credibility to Buffalo's inept passing game; the Bills' offense scored the sixth most points in the AFC in 2002, after having scored the fifth fewest in the entire league the previous season. The season saw the Bills change their uniform, which lasted until

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

Offseason

Draft

The Bills infamously drafted Mike Williams, an

offensive tackle Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict inj ...

from

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

with the #4 overall pick of the draft, with

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

offensive tackle

Bryant McKinnie Bryant Douglas McKinnie (born September 23, 1979) is a former American football offensive tackle. He played college football at the University of Miami, where he was twice recognized as an All-American. He was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings ...

still available. Williams spent only four seasons with the team. ''

Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

'' named Williams as the #4 biggest NFL

draft bust A draft is a process used in some countries (especially in North America) and sports (especially in closed leagues) to allocate certain players to teams. In a draft, teams take turns selecting from a pool of eligible players. When a team sele ...

from 1989–2008.10-Pack: 10 biggest first-round draft busts of the last 20 years
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Undrafted free agents

Personnel

Roster

Regular season

Due to the Bills' 3–13 record the previous season, the NFL did not schedule any of their games in prime time (Sunday night or Monday night), and all but two of the Bills' games had 1:00 start times. However, due to the attention the Bills' free-agent acquisitions brought to the team, as well as the team being in the thick of the competitive AFC East race, several division games were aired nationally on CBS. After a one-year absence, the

NFL Primetime ''NFL Primetime'' is a sports television program that has aired on ESPN since 1987. The show is presented similarly to ESPN's own '' SportsCenter'', featuring scores, highlights, and analysis of every game of the week in the NFL. When it debut ...

theme "Powersurge" returned as the Bills' theme song on the ESPN program. It was used for the show's Bills highlights for each game during the season except for the Bengals/Bills game in Week 17.

Schedule

Standings

Game summaries

Week 1: vs. New York Jets

Week 2: at Minnesota Vikings

Week 3: at Denver Broncos

Week 4: vs. Chicago Bears

Week 5: vs. Oakland Raiders

Week 6: at Houston Texans

Week 7: at Miami Dolphins

Week 8: vs. Detroit Lions

Week 9: vs. New England Patriots

Week 11: at Kansas City Chiefs

Week 12: at New York Jets

Week 13: vs. Miami Dolphins

Week 14: at New England Patriots

Week 15: vs. San Diego Chargers

Week 16: at Green Bay Packers

Week 17: vs. Cincinnati Bengals

References

External links

Buffalo Bills on Pro Football Reference
{{DEFAULTSORT:2002 Buffalo Bills season

Buffalo Bills seasons

Buff Buff or BUFF may refer to: People * Buff (surname), a list of people * Buff (nickname), a list of people * Johnny Buff, ring name of American world champion boxer John Lisky (1888–1955) * Buff Bagwell, a ring name of American professional wr ...