NFL analyst predicts Bills QB Josh Allen to earn prestigious award in 2024 season

A CBS Sports writer expects Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen to construct a stellar 2024 campaign.

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Few players in the contemporary NFL are more consistently productive than Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, who has accounted for 221 total touchdowns since he entered the league in 2018. No player in the NFL has scored more touchdowns than the Buffalo signal-caller’s 203 since the 2019 season, and he’s totaled over 40 scores in a league-record four consecutive seasons. He’s long been a dynamic player capable of systematically dismantling opposition with both his arm and legs, but for the first time in several years, his supporting cast is set to change drastically.

Stefon Diggs and Gabriel Davis have long adorned the marquee of the Bills’ receiving corps, but both left Orchard Park this spring through a trade and free agency, respectively. The team figures to replace their production through offseason additions like Curtis Samuel, Mack Hollins, and rookie Keon Coleman in addition to returning contributors such as Khalil Shakir and Dalton Kincaid; it’s a talented group that should produce with Allen dispersing them the ball, but the unit is, on paper, weaker than its been in years past due to its lack of a bonafide alpha option.

Related: Bills still viewed as one of NFL’s elite entering 2024 season despite injuries

If Allen were to continue to produce at the clip he has in the recent past (over 4,000 passing yards and over 40 total touchdowns) with his revamped and unproven weapons corps, individual honors and accolades may be in order. CBS Sports writer Will Brinson echoed this sentiment in a recent article predicting each NFL club’s win/loss record in the 2024 campaign, predicting that Buffalo’s franchise centerpiece will earn NFL MVP honors this season as he leads his team to a 10-7 record.

“Josh Allen is my MVP pick this year, and part of that is him having a division-winning, toss-the-team-on-my-back season after the Bills traded Stefon Diggs this offseason,” Brinson wrote. “The narrative here is the Bills will crater and people seem to be rooting against them. I'm not totally sold on Joe Brady as an OC, but I think his play-calling fits with these weapons: he's going to feed James Cook and continue to run Allen in the red zone. 

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“The combo of Keon Coleman, Curtis Samuel and Khalil Shakir with the potential for a massive breakout from Dalton Kincaid gives this offense a lot more upside than people are giving it credit for. Sean McDermott noted this might be the best OL of his tenure in Buffalo. I'm buying the dip. The Bills defensively have some pass rush concerns and are in the middle of changing over personnel, but I still trust McDermott to get the most out of this group. Von Miller needs to be a much bigger plus than last year.”

Brinson foresees Buffalo finishing as the third or fourth seed in the conference as it earns its fifth straight AFC East crown, a feat that, if accomplished, would set a new franchise record. Allen, if he were to win the NFL MVP Award this season, would be the first Bill to earn the honor since running back Thurman Thomas did so in the 1991 NFL season; he’d be the fifth player in franchise history to earn either AFL or NFL MVP honors, joining Thomas, Cookie Gilchrist, Jack Kemp, and O.J. Simpson.

As the analyst alludes to, the Bills’ sustaining the offensive success they’ve experienced in recent years would likely stem from Allen ‘tossing the team on his back,’ as the team’s receiving corps, while talented, is unproven. There are reasons for optimism—Shakir and Kincaid both flashed last season, Coleman showed immense promise at Florida State, and Samuel previously posted the best production of his professional career under Brady—but until the unit has the opportunity to prove its promise in the regular season, it’s all just hope. Allen and the rest of Buffalo’s offense will have their first opportunity to show that the offseason personnel moves won’t ultimately impact them all that much this Sunday when the team kicks off its 2024 season against the Arizona Cardinals.

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