ESPN analyst says Bills' offense will still be one of NFL’s best despite turnover

ESPN's Mina Kimes believes the Buffalo Bills' offense will still be one of the NFL's best this season despite the spring departure of Stefon Diggs.

Kyle Silagyi | Aug 8, 2024

Bills quarterback Josh Allen talks with offensive coordinator Joe Brady during the Buffalo Bills training camp Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2024 at St. John Fisher University. / Shawn Dowd/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK

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Those at all levels of the Buffalo Bills organization have offered some version of the same sentiment at some point throughout the 2024 offseason: “There’s no replacing Stefon Diggs.”

The perennial Pro Bowler is not a player that a team can easily secure a like-for-like replacement for upon their departure, especially not a club as cap-strapped as Buffalo was when it dealt the wideout to the Houston Texans in early April. Diggs was a 100-plus reception, 1,000-plus yard receiver in each of his campaigns in Orchard Park, cementing himself as the franchise’s fourth-all-time leading pass-catcher after just four seasons; it’s not easy to simply replace that.

And so Buffalo didn’t even attempt to. The team’s brass didn’t pursue a bonafide primary target after Diggs’ departure, instead opting to construct a weapons corps of talented, but inexperienced pass-catchers and overlooked veterans. The strategy, which offensive coordinator Joe Brady has dubbed an ‘everyone eats’ approach, will allow quarterback Josh Allen to disperse the ball evenly amongst his versatile targets as opposed to funneling the aerial attack through one target-heavy receiver; this, in theory, will allow the Bills’ offense to maintain its excellence even in the absence of a premier wideout.

Allen spoke about Diggs’ departure after Wednesday’s training camp practice, stating that the veteran’s absence will be felt but that he won’t necessarily “miss” him due to the promise he sees in the team’s revamped receiving corps. The quarterback’s comments sparked a discussion on Thursday’s episode of First Take, with ESPN analyst Mina Kimes supporting Allen’s claims and suggesting that Buffalo’s offense has the potential to again be one of the league’s best this fall.

“The truth is, while Stefon Diggs has been the No. 1 option in this offense, he transformed this offense, he arguably transformed Josh Allen’s career,” Kimes said. “We saw in the second half of the season last year when his role was diminished after Joe Brady took over as the offensive coordinator, the offense didn’t really lose a beat. They leaned more heavily on a dominant run game that I expect to still be dominant this season. They’ve invested a great deal into that offensive line, and I think James Cook really emerged last season. You saw them lean more on Dalton Kincaid, who was their first [year] tight end, young tight ends tend to be better in years two or three, so I only expect him to develop further. You really saw Josh Allen lean more on him as an intermediate target, a man coverage beater, both things that they would look to Stefon Diggs [for].

.@MinaKimes isn't worried about the Bills offense without Stefon Diggs ✍️

"By the second half of the season, I think they'll be as good as any offense in the NFL." pic.twitter.com/ciklMQvVCf
— First Take (@FirstTake) August 8, 2024

“That’s of course without even getting to their addition in the [second-round] this year, Keon Coleman. I think that this offense might have some ups and downs in the first part of the season as everybody kind of feels each other out, and you’ve got that rookie receiver, but by the second half of the season, I think they’ll be as good as any offense in the NFL, which is what they’ve been for the past three years, a top-three offense by any metric.”

Kimes mentions Kincaid, who flashed down the stretch of his rookie year, and Coleman, who has shown immense promise throughout training camp, as two significant contributors. They’ll lead the way offensively alongside third-year wideout Khalil Shakir, who caught 30 total passes for 438 yards after Brady took over as play-caller last season, and Curtis Samuel, who re-unites with the offensive coordinator who previously led him to the best production of his professional career in Carolina.

Throw in the facts that Allen has showcased burgeoning connections with all of these pass-catchers throughout training camp and that James Cook is coming off a 2023 season in which he finished sixth in the league in scrimmage yards, and there are obvious reasons to have faith in Buffalo’s offense this fall. The unit may be sans a former stalwart, but there’s enough returning and added talent to believe that the offense will again be difficult to stop throughout the regular season.

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