MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. - There are only four players on the Buffalo Bills’ roster who played in Sunday night’s heart-stopping, AFC East-clinching 21-14 victory over the Miami Dolphins, who were with the team on that incredible New Year's Eve night in 2017 when Buffalo’s 17-year playoff drought came to a resounding end.

In Sean McDermott’s first season as head coach, he and Dion Dawkins, Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer and Reid Ferguson (along with Tre’Davious White and Matt Milano who are currently injured and didn’t play Sunday against Miami) stood in the very same visitors’ locker room watching the seemingly impossible come true.

Before the media was allowed into the room following the Bills’ Tyrod Taylor-led 23-18 victory over the Dolphins, the entire team – with captain Kyle Williams and his young sons at the forefront – watched on television as Andy Dalton threw that incredible touchdown pass to Tyler Boyd which lifted the Bengals to an upset of the Ravens, the play that allowed the Bills to sneak through the back door and into the postseason for the first time since Doug Flutie’s team in 1999.

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The roar as Boyd raced to the end zone shook the walls, and once we were invited in, it was a scene like no other that I have witnessed covering the Bills across more than four decades, even more emotional and uplifting than the four times Buffalo won the AFC championship in the 1990s.

From 2017: See the unbelievable scene in the Buffalo Bills locker room

The raw glee of those grown men, those football behemoths, the emotion, the tears, the laughter, the high-fiving and hugging, were a sight to behold as the weight of that ignominious playoff drought was finally lifted off the franchise’s collective shoulders.

Thousands of Bills fans celebrated in Miami

Sunday night, just like that Sunday seven years ago, thousands of Bills fans remained inside Hard Rock Stadium – is it Highmark Stadium South? – long after the final gun had sounded, in full-throated frivolity, celebrating yet another a seismic triumph.

Back in 2017, those fans had to wait during those tense final few minutes of the Bengals-Ravens game before they could unleash their own frustrations built up over 17 years of Gregg Williams/Mike Mularkey/Dick Jauron/Chan Gailey/Doug Marrone/Rex Ryan madness.

This time the celebration was instantaneous the moment Taylor Rapp’s interception sealed the deal and a Buffalo team, now in a vastly different stratosphere, had won a fourth straight division crown.

As I made my way around the Bills’ locker room Sunday night, it was impossible not to drift back seven years in time to that scene in this same place.

“Yeah, I was right over there where those TVs are on,” Dawkins, then a rookie second-round draft pick, said with a smile, thinking back. “It’s kind of similar. I would love to see Kyle Williams right now. Yeah, flashbacks for sure.”

Hyde, who had been one of McDermott’s very first free agent signings (before Brandon Beane became GM), had tasted success in his previous stop in Green Bay. He had played in eight postseason games during four years there, including two NFC Championship Game losses. But that 2017 Bills’ team making the playoffs when there were zero expectations was an accomplishment that remains No. 1 for the safety.

“I love the guys in this locker room – this is one of the best ones we’ve had,” he said of the Bills’ rallying from a 6-6 record to win five straight and steal the division from Miami. “Other than 2017 celebrating here. You can’t ever top that – that was by far the best – but this is right up there, right underneath it.”

Poyer, who joined the Bills almost exactly when Hyde did, tried to stay focused on this latest achievement, but he smiled when I reminded him of the craziness in 2017.

“Honestly, I didn’t think about it until you brought it up,” Poyer said. “I’m in this moment right here, right now. That was then, this is now, and this feels great. I want to enjoy this with my teammates, with the guys that are here right now. You know that was the past, it was a great moment in that time, but we’re here right now enjoying this right here.”

Fair enough. A point well taken because what the Bills were able to do at the end of the 2023 regular season deserves its own moment without reflection from the past.

After loss to Eagles, Buffalo Bills went on impressive run

The Bills looked dead when they lost in overtime to the Eagles on Nov. 26, falling to 6-6, a full three games behind the Dolphins in the AFC East, and facing two games coming out of their bye week that looked daunting – at Kansas City and home to a Dallas team that was red hot.

But the Bills met those challenges head on, beating the Chiefs 20-17 at Arrowhead Stadium and then decimating Dallas 31-10. Two less impressive victories over the Chargers and Patriots followed, putting them in position to play for the hats and t-shirts in Miami.

“Midway through the season, coach asked us what our identity is, and honestly, there wasn’t a lot of people that could answer that question,” Poyer said. “Just like you guys, we were trying to figure out our identity, too. But it’s just a bunch of guys that stick together and just keep freaking playing no matter what anybody says about them.

“There’s a lot of (reporters) in this locker room that are asking questions that counted us out midway through the season. And we’re here now and now the question is, how did you do it? It’s just all part of it; it’s all part of our journey.”

Josh Allen, who arrived four months after that momentous 2017 victory in Miami, said the loss to the Eagles was the moment when the Bills realized that time was up, their season was on the brink, and there was no longer any margin for error. They needed to win their last five games.

“We knew what was in front of us,” Allen said. “We had a lot of internal talks, trusted the guys in this locker room.”

It certainly wasn’t smooth sailing to the finish line Sunday, particularly for Allen who had his struggles, not the least of which was three turnovers that nearly cost the Bills Sunday’s game. But there he was, making an impassioned speech in the locker room just as Kyle Williams had done seven years ago, reveling in the running of the regular season table, but also reminding his teammates that the job is not done.

“At the end of the day, this is fun, this is cool. I’ll never say no to winning a division,” he said as he wore his AFC East champions T-shirt and baseball cap. “But the only thing that it solidifies is a home game and one more game. Doesn’t mean anything if we go out there next week and don’t do our job. We’ve got to find a way to put our best foot forward to find victory next week.”

For Dawkins sitting in front of his locker stall and reflecting on what will be his sixth playoff appearance in seven seasons under McDermott, the difference between 2017 and 2023 came down to one thing.

“This team has evolved into a different beast now,” Dawkins said. “Not that it’s expected, but we’re at a point in the organization where this is the norm, this is how it should be. We should be able to come and handle our own destiny and get our job done. It’s a beautiful feeling, it truly is, and it definitely has a little bit of feel from 2017. The only thing that’s different is we weren’t looking at the TV, hoping for somebody else to do it for us. We did it for ourself and I’m thankful for that.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out twice a week during the season, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Buffalo Bills win over Dolphins has shades of huge 2017 celebration