Tyler Bass contract details: How much money does the Bills kicker make?

Special teams is an overlooked art in the NFL. The Buffalo Bills have a great kicker in Tyler Bass. While many will be upset with him over the missed 44 yard field goal in the final minutes of the AFC Divisional game that saw the Kansas City Chiefs win for a second straight year, the game was lost long before that point.

Josh Allen spent the game trying to force passes while ignoring wide open receivers. Then when he found Stefon Diggs earlier in the fourth quarter on a perfect 65 yard bomb, Diggs just dropped it.

In the first half, there were touchdown passes that went in and out of the hands of nearly every receiver on the Bills roster.

Now, only eight months after giving Tyler Bass a four-year, $21 million contract extension, fans are calling for his head.

It is the seeming repetition of history that will make this stick in the Bills’ fans minds. “Wide right” is something that they hear in their sleep.

In Super Bowl XXV, the Bills trailed by one point with eight seconds to go and Scott Norwood missed a 47 yard field goal, going wide to the right. Those words, uttered by Al Michaels, have haunted the Bills for three decades.

So it is understandable that when a field goal was missed to the right, that the first reaction might be “not again!” Never mind the swirling wind. Never mind the fact that the field goal would have only tied the game, not won it. Never mind the fact that there were nearly two minutes left on the clock and the Chiefs could have easily marched down the field in that time. The “we lost on another missed field goal” story is just too catchy to resist.

But laying the blame at Bass’ feet is disingenuous. And more importantly, it will not solve anything for Buffalo.

The narrative may be that Tyler Bass lost the game, but that is not true.

The Buffalo Bills lost this game all by themselves.