Bills' Offseason Coaching Hires Point to Strong Partnership With Josh Allen
INDIANAPOLIS — Josh Allen has evolved past the point of a Buffalo Bills team leader. The fifth-year quarterback is ostensibly a partner in their football operations now and is to be protected like a queen bee.
If there were any doubts about that before Tuesday, there shouldn't be anymore. Coach Sean McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane made that clear to everyone who was paying attention at the NFL Scouting Combine.
Everything the Bills do, from adding plays to their book, to protection calls, to hiring assistants, to pursuing free agents and even to drafting players, is with Allen's comfort in mind.
He may not call the plays on gameday yet, but he is consulted on everything that gets printed on the laminated chart.
When the Bills lost offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, assistant quarterbacks coach Shea Tierney and offensive line coach Bobby Johnson to the New York Giants, they knew they couldn't fill those openings without Allen endorsing the replacements, starting with Ken Dorsey being promoted from quarterbacks coach to take Daboll's place.
The Bills then imported Joe Brady, who had been let go as offensive coordinator by the Carolina Panthers in December, to take Dorsey's old spot.
"More than anything, I wanted Josh to be comfortable," McDermott said. "We've had success on the offensive side, we've had success overall. ... When you win, people take from your staff. It's hard, but it's a good thing at the end of the day in terms of people being able to move on to bigger and better opportunities for them, as I mentioned earlier.
“But in this case, with [new offensive coordinator] Ken [Dorsey], promoting from within and having Josh's approval on that, I think, is big. You try and get a feel for the landscape of the NFL and where things like this take a turn for the worse, and wanting to do it the right way was big for me and Brandon. And so Josh being involved in this decision, I think, gives him some ownership and also trying to get us to continue to get him comfortable or keep him comfortable, but also growing our system from where it's been."
Not coincidentally, Allen stands as the quarterback with the highest postseason passer rating (106.6) in NFL history.
McDermott is excited about what he called a "rebranding" of the staff.
Beane even suggested some of the new arrivals, such as offensive line coach Aaron Kromer, might have to adjust to Allen and the Bills' system rather than the other way around. Kromer had coached the Bills' line for the two seasons prior to McDermott's arrival in 2017.
"We don't have to change all the protections," Beane said. "He's coming in to kind of learn our system. The more we keep it safe for Josh, the easier it will be."
That's what the Bills want: Nice and easy.
Because harmony with the quarterback in the building leads to cohesion on the field when the sky is falling.
As such, Allen will have a say in the quarterbacks they bring in to back him up, just as he did last year before they signed Mitchell Trubisky for one season. The Bills would love to keep Trubisky but don't expect to be able to compete in the free-agent market for teams they believe will offer him an opportunity to at least compete for a starting job. That's something he would never have in Buffalo as long as Allen is healthy.
Finding the right backup won't be nearly as difficult as finding, developing and staying patient with Allen, taken with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.
"For us, it was conviction," Beane said. "I was going through the process, doing the work in the fall [of 2017]. And I knew if I was going to be standing here five years later, that I had to get that position right. And so it was really back to the trades. You know, [what we wanted] when we moved on from Sammy Watkins, Marcell Dareus and [Ronald] Darby and several of those guys, was to prepare ourselves no matter where we finished, that we can go get the quarterback, quarterbacks that we that we wanted to. ... So we had the conviction there that let's just get ourselves in position.
"We were at 21, and as I was talking to people in the top 10, nobody wanted to go down to 21. So the next thing was, how do I get closer? And we were able to work that deal ... to get to 12. At that point, people started entertaining, moving from four to 12, five to 12, ultimately, seven to 12."
As a result, Beane was at the podium on Tuesday, speaking about the Bills' bright future. Had he been wrong, there's little question that person speaking would have been someone else.
Nick Fierro is the publisher of Bills Central. Check out the latest Bills news at www.si.com/nfl/bills and follow Fierro on Twitter at @NickFierro. Email to Nicky300@aol.com.
