Henry McKenna
NFL reporter
For most of Josh Allen’s career, he was chasing Patrick Mahomes.
There is a draft, Allen enters 2018, a year behind Mahomes. There’s the matter of the contract, with Allen signing his biggest extension in 2021 after Mahomes inked his in 2020. There is play on the field, where Mahomes has three Super Bowl titles and two MVPs and Allen has neither.
In terms of NFL maturity, Allen is at least behind Mahomes.
Except for one category: protective clothing.
Mahomes still has his. Tight end Travis Kelce has been No. 1 in the Chiefs offense since Mahomes took over as QB1. Allen lost his alpha this season to Stefon Diggs. And while many compare that to Mahomes losing to Tyreek Hill, the comparison is flawed. Because even after Hill left, Mahomes had the longest pass-catching tight end in the history of the game. Allen? After the Bills traded for Diggs this past offseason, the QB had nothing of the sort.
This is not to say that Allen is better than Mahomes – although the Bills QB is better than the Chiefs QB right now. It’s just to say that Allen and the Bills, for a long time, copied Mahomes and the Chiefs with their team building strategies.
Until now. Now, things are different.
So Sunday’s game, in which Allen beat Mahomes, felt like a reminder of how Allen’s career differs from Mahomes’. Allen ran for the game-winning touchdown and led the team in rushing yards. He also finished with a touchdown on his 11th pass-catcher. It’s a good thing the quarterback is 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds, because all he seems to do is put the Bills on his back.
“I feel like we can all play as alphas on the team, because of who we have at quarterback,” linebacker Reggie Gilliam said. “You never know which guy might go 100 yards that day.”
“The league has stars and you’re one of them,” receiver Amari Cooper said. “He’s an amazing talent.”
The Bills’ offense has struggled throughout the season. Their struggles were on full display in their losses to the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans. The Bills got more points from the Chiefs (30) as they did in those two games. That’s when things looked doubtful for Allen and Nyathi. Maybe they are he did they need Diggs.
But since then they have won six in a row.
And that’s in part because Allen has taken more command over the offense. That’s not just hustle and bustle or meeting rooms. It’s about the relationship he has with his teammates.
“He did a good job all week asking us what we like, what we don’t like, how we see certain games,” said Dawson Knox. “We have a player-only meeting, where he’s going to go through all the receivers, all the tight ends, all the running backs. Like, ‘Hey, what’s your favorite play? What’s your least favorite? What do you like? do you want to see the call early?’ So communicating with him has been great, seeing him take those extra steps to make us feel comfortable. He’s done a great job with that so far.
Is it fair to call Josh Allen the best QB in the NFL right now?
Knox was talking about Friday’s team meeting that offensive coordinator Joe Brady is considering but not attending. Brady leaves the room to let Allen run the show. That pushes the QB up front and center so that, just like on the field, he can make sure he communicates with his guys. This meeting started in the middle of last year when Brady took over from Ken Dorsey. And Buffalo went ahead with it this year, which helped generate more conversations between players in 2024.
[READ MORE: Inside the Bills’ meeting that revitalized Josh Allen and Buffalo’s offense]
So how different is Allen this year in coordinating the offense?
“It just came out,” Knox said. “He does, but it’s like he’s on a high level, like when we have a sit-down meeting with everyone, and he puts you aside one by one. So I’d just say he does it. continuously.”
That’s how a player like Khalil Shakir has become Allen’s new defensive outfit. Shakir is the team leader in receptions (56) and receiving yards (599). He saw an uptick in activity at the end of last year as Diggs’ production slowed. And Shakir continued to rise.
“He’s a frickin’ football player — emphasis on football,” Allen said of Shakir in September. “He makes such sacrifices. All week, he might catch two passes in practice and, again, he’ll find ways to be in the right place at the right time. And he makes plays. That’s just been his MO. I love him.”
It’s easy to see why. Shakir has the highest catch percentage (84.8%) of all receivers with at least 25 targets. He has third in yards after the catch (473). He’s not that fast. He is simply dangerous in the open field, which makes life easy for Allen.
But as mentioned, the Bills hit a rough patch early in the season against playoff contenders. And perhaps in part because tight end Dalton Kincaid, a former first-round pick, has yet to rise to the top of the roster, Buffalo traded for Cooper.
Buffalo has emphasized the idea of ”everybody eats” in meetings, but Cooper projects to be the team’s No. 1 option. Because he joined the Bills in a midseason trade, he doesn’t have a full handle on the team’s playbook — and he doesn’t have extensive practice experience with Allen. And yet, they seem to have that unspoken connection where they can find each other in difficult situations.
Allen found Cooper with a touchdown on the receiver’s first play. In the scoring play, the Bills QB cautioned against Cooper’s one-on-one matchup with the quarterback, because Allen liked the matchup. And for good reason, because Cooper was easily exposed to touch.
We saw more of that harmony on Sunday. Cooper may have held only two things but they were outstanding, with a 30-yard shoulder catch and a contested reception of 20 yards in tight coverage. The bills do not generate contact with their new recipients. Allen and Cooper make it happen, in part because it’s an important part of the case.
Although Cooper is a much different person than Diggs, they are the same receiver. And maybe that made Allen draw on his own experience to speed up their connection.
“Some quarterbacks have been playing this game for a long time. They can see the similarities in the games of the new receivers coming in, and that helps with time, if that makes sense,” Cooper said. “But we communicate really well, especially in games where I know I might have a good chance to get the ball. We will communicate so that we can get that result before it happens.”
Cooper praised the Bills as being “unique” in that they all go out to eat together and “come together” in a way he hasn’t seen much of in his 10-year career. And maybe that’s what made the team’s win over the Chiefs so exciting. Cooper seemed to enjoy playing with him and Allen, who ran for the team’s go-ahead, 26-yard touchdown on fourth down.
“It was the first time in a long time that I felt the joy of winning this game,” said Cooper. “When you’re a kid and you dream about football, this is the stage you dream about. You dream about big plays against the best teams. … So to answer your question about Josh Allen’s experience – at this level [of Sunday’s game] – it was amazing. … You know the old saying: Big-time players make long-term plays in big situations. That’s exactly what he did. “
Allen is doing a lot of little things this year. Sharper than ever, he has warnings and sound things that set his case for success. The quarterback avoids disastrous turnovers and plays better football. You play smart.
“Josh is a lot smarter than – I don’t know what people give him credit for, he’s brain-smart, but he’s very smart. He’s a very smart man,” Cooper said.
To put it all together, the Bills have a quarterback who doesn’t need to step up among pass catchers to lead one of the NFL’s best offenses. There is a playful saying from Joe Burrow: “F— it, Ja’Marr is over there somewhere.” That’s kind of the opposite of the Bills’ identity.
“The thing about Josh is you don’t feel like you have favorites,” Gilliam said. “It doesn’t matter who you are, he trusts you. If you’re in the house with us, he trusts you. So I don’t know if I want to throw the ball to him because. we don’t have that much chemistry.’ He threw a deep ball to Quintin Morris [against the Chiefs]. It might have been the first time.”
No one says: “F— it. Quintin is over there somewhere.” None other than Josh Allen.
And that’s how he’s one step away from Mahomes — and, in turn, one step closer to closing the gap between the two QBs.
Before joining FOX Sports as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots at USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.
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