Consistency is important in the NFL, but it's not everything. Take the Houston Texans, for instance. Last year, with a rookie quarterback, a rookie head coach, a first-time offensive coordinator, and new contributors all over the field, they still made the playoffs.
It's not everything, but it does help, and the Buffalo Bills' Josh Allen is facing more instability this year than any other returning quarterback in the NFL.
Allen is the only quarterback that will enter 2024 with a new offensive coordinator (sorta), a new center, a new No. 1 wide receiver, and a new No. 2 wide receiver.
Despite all the changes, the expectations for excellence remain the same, as Bills Mafia stays hungry for their first Super Bowl win.
Joe Brady is in his first offseason as the full-time Bills offensive coordinator
This time last year, it was Ken Dorsey running the offense. After a middling start to the season, lowlighted by a Week 10 loss to the Denver Broncos, Dorsey was replaced, with Joe Brady getting the nod as interim offensive coordinator. Early into the offseason this year, they promoted him to the full time coordinator position.
We did get a glimpse of what Brady's offense could look like – the ball was distributed to many playmakers, including a late-season surge by Khalil Shakir , even with Stefon Diggs demanding a lion's share of the targets. Probably most encouraging about Brady's second half of the season was his ability to make adjustments drive to drive. But now, with an entire offseason to create his scheme, there will inevitably be new wrinkles and concepts implemented that we didn't see last year.
Allen will have a lot of new faces to throw to
Another change for Allen – he enters 2024 without his No. 1 and No. 2 wide receivers after Diggs was traded and Gabriel Davis left in free agency. He will still have breakout-candidate Dalton Kincaid at tight end, along with the somehow still underrated Khalil Shakir looking to take a step forward, but Allen will have to quickly develop trust and chemistry with rookie Keon Coleman and free agent veteran Curtis Samuel.
With 241 targets left by Diggs and Davis, there will be plenty of opportunities, and necessities, for new options to step up in the Buffalo passing attack.
Buffalo has changes up front on the offensive line
As if new weapons in a new scheme wasn't enough, the Bills will enter a new season with shuffling up front. Buffalo returns their star left tackle, Dion Dawkins, and the right side of the line is set with O'Cyrus Torrence at guard and Spencer Brown at tackle, but the left guard-center duo will look a little different.
After moving on from longtime stalwart Mitch Morse at center, the Bills will kick Connor McGovern inside and welcome David Edwards, who started last year up front for the Rams, to be their starting left guard.
After it was announced that McGovern would move to center, he made it clear that he's happy about the move.
“I would say center is my natural position so it’s just going back home,” McGovern told the media in June. "Hard to believe, but I was actually undersized growing up in high school,” McGovern said. “I was always center because I was usually the smallest one and then once I hit my growth spurt, I just stayed at center. I went to Penn State at center, moved to guard, then went back to center and it was just always something natural. I always liked being the guy right in the middle, it was always comfortable to me.”
Bills Mafia will need to exercise patience with this year's iteration of the Bills. With so many changes, chemistry might not come naturally early in the season. Fortunately for those circling the wagons, Allen possesses the elite traits and backyard football style of play capable of making something out of nothing. It's one of the many traits that make him so great.
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