There are Bills offenses that exist in theory. And when we talk about those Bills offenses, we can talk about managing the way Josh Allen plays. We can talk about offensive coordinator Joe Brady and his spatially complex ethos. We can talk about the ways Buffalo’s true transformation this offseason was into a unit that was able to convert into different formations more quickly rather than one that needed to rely on deep-ball passing. And we can talk about the importance of creating a running game not centered around the quarterback, which absolutely seems to have taken place.
But then there are games like Sunday’s 44–32 win over the Buccaneers, in which Allen accounted for six touchdowns (three passing, three rushing), that make the nuance feel like discussing advanced physics when you’re about to get run over by El Toro from Monster Jam. It also makes the usage question on Allen feel, well, useless. It’s very clear that this team is tethered to all of Allen’s best and worst tendencies in perpetuity and the sooner the Bills accept that and drop the pretenses about what needs to change around Allen in order to maximize him, the easier it will be to understand the team’s overall performance.
