Thurman Thomas defined greatness for the Buffalo Bills during his playing career.
Thomas is not only a Pro Football Hall of Famer who won the NFL MVP award in 1991, he helped lead the Bills to a pinnacle of success never experienced before in franchise history. Buffalo advanced to four straight Super Bowls, a stretch that included Thomas being named a Pro Bowler or garnering an All-Pro selection in every one of those seasons (1990-1993). During Thomas’ 12 seasons in Buffalo (1988-1999), they made it to the playoffs 10 times.
Fast forward to today and the Bills are in the midst of seven consecutive playoff appearances, led by none other than franchise quarterback Josh Allen. However, unlike Thomas’ Bills from the early 90s, Buffalo has yet to advance to a Super Bowl in this current era.
It’s an interesting time in Buffalo because not only are they about to debut at the new Highmark Stadium, they’ll also be entering their first season with Joe Brady as head coach after moving on from longtime head coach Sean McDermott. McDermott had been the head coach since the 2017 season.
Thomas pinpoints one issue that could hold the team back from reaching its potential and it’s not the offense — it’s the defense. The 60-year-old football great mentions the defense as a potential Achilles heel.
“We went from a 4-3 defense to a 3-4 defense, I think our offense is going to score over 30 points a game for the second or third year in a row. I think we can score thirty,” said Thomas in a one-on-one interview. “It’s our defense the one that I’m worried about because we went from a 4-3 to a 3-4, and we still have some of the same type of players that have to adjust for this new 3-4. Like Greg Rousseau, he has to probably go back and cover the flat now. I mean, has he ever done that before? That’s a difficult thing to do. But these guys are athletes.
“They’re going to try to figure it out,” Thomas continued. “So it’s all about the defense and what Jim Leonhard is going to do. Obviously takeovers is a big part of winning in the National Football League. And if these guys can be aggressive, you don’t really have to have the superstar on that football team to make plays, you can have guys that are just out there, just being aggressive, knowing what they do, doing their assignments every single play. So it’s the defense more than anything for me.”
Bills’ Defense Ranks in Middle-of-Pack Among NFL Teams
Thomas’ assessment makes sense considering the strength of Buffalo’s team is their offensive unit led by former MVP Allen and the league’s reigning rushing leader in James Cook. They also have a plethora of quality offensive weapons in Khalil Shakir, DJ Moore, Keon Coleman and Dalton Kincaid.
The Bills’ defense ranked 12th last season, which is not bad, but obviously not great either. Buffalo also ranked just 15th in turnovers forced. The Bills didn’t have a single Pro Bowler named from the defensive side of the ball last season.
Thomas regards the Bills to be one of the top five teams in the NFL, but he recognizes that the team needs to improve defensively in order to break through the glass ceiling.
Thurman Thomas Partners With Carhartt to Highlight New Bills Highmark Stadium
One of the big topics entering the 2026 season will be the Bills opening play in the new Highmark Stadium. Thomas’ commercial construction company, 34 Group Inc., installed the seats at the new Highmark Stadium. Carhartt’s “Made Possible” campaign highlights the unsung heroes who helped build the stadium.
“The program was made possible by them contacting me a couple of years ago and wanted to do something with my construction company, 34 Group, and that was all fine and well,” said Thomas. “But they wanted to do some of it in the new stadium that we were building, starting to build at the time, and so we had to get approval to do something inside the stadium, and that kind of led to the relationship that the Buffalo Bills have now with Carhartt, with me and my company now, and it’s been a tremendous, tremendous partnership the past couple of years.
“Obviously, knowing about Carhartt for a number of years, but to have them now not only in my life, but my family life, it has been tremendous,” Thomas continued. “We’ve been been up to Dearborn, Michigan, to visit the headquarters. Just when you walk in the building, you can feel the honesty, you can feel the dependability, and the trust that come from these employees. We had a great time. Once we left there, we were like, you know what? I think we got to visit it every year because the people you just fell in love with the people that worked there. It all started with Hamilton Carhartt back in 1889, and it definitely has taken off. Definitely was a fan favorite back then, but totally into my life now.”
Thomas, who obviously played in the old Highmark Stadium, said the previous one is no comparison to the new one.
“No, it’s no comparison, no comparison from the old High Mark to this one,” said Thomas. “It’s more electric. It’s louder. The guys are playing on natural grass now instead of astroturf. It’s an unbelievable stadium. Like I said, it only seats about 60,000, but it is loud. It’s remarkable, and that’s 10,000 or 11,000 less than what it had in the old stadium in Highmark. A lot of the things that I’ve been hearing is like, ‘Is this stadium really in Buffalo? Is this really in Buffalo, New York?’ And I tell people, ‘Yes, it is.’ If you get an opportunity to go to a game to check out this new stadium, go ahead and do it because this is our team here. We couldn’t go another year in the old Highmark, which was built in 1973. This is where we’re at now, and I think it’s going to be a remarkable season. I think with the Bills opening up this new Highmark Stadium for the first year, it’s going to be electric the entire year.”
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