Josh Allen forms a new team in Buffalo to continue the success his previous Bills team failed to achieve

The names and faces around Josh Allen are different and fresh, so it’s clear to the Buffalo Bills quarterback that what he sees is that what other veteran quarterbacks have told him would happen if he played for quite a long time.

“I talked to some of the long-time veterans from that game and realized they may have been on the same team, but they actually played with three or four different teams,” Allen said to journalists Tuesday after an OTA session.

Allen knows these latter-day veterans continued to play for the same franchise. But the teammates, the rosters have changed. The teams they played on were therefore different, even if the uniform did not change.

ORCHARD PARK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 03: Quarterback Josh Allen #17 of the Buffalo Bills right hand Joe Thomas #48 of the Houston Texans in the first quarter at Highmark Stadium on October 03, 2021 in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Images)

Familiar bills are gone

Allen turned 28 on Tuesday. And maybe it made him a little nostalgic because many of the players he called teammates in recent years are gone.

Buffalo’s starting receivers in recent years have either left in free agency (Gabe Davis) or been traded this offseason (Stefon Diggs).

Longtime center and good friend Mitch Morese has been released and is now in Jacksonville.

The starting safety tandem of Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer from the last half-decade, two defensive leaders, are also no longer with the team.

Things are going to be a lot different for the Bills in 2024 because the team that, with Allen, set an annual goal of winning the Super Bowl simply hasn’t delivered on its promises.

These 2020-2023 bills have spent a lot of time as popular and logical Super Bowl favorites. But they especially disappointed beyond their four consecutive AFC East titles.

Because winning the division isn’t really what matters most.

January 15, 2024; Orchard Park, New York, United States; Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs (14) takes the field before the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in a 2024 AFC wild card game at Highmark Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The greats succeeded with different castings

The Bills mob would probably cringe when they read this truth. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s true.

And the proof is that general manager Brandon Beane hit the reset button this offseason on replacing a group of players who were getting too old or too expensive, too sore, or too often ailing and injured.

Josh Allen’s first Bills team therefore made history.

This inexorable transition is not unique. This is actually the natural order of things for franchise quarterbacks.

Many exceptional and accomplished quarterbacks have seen their surrounding teammates voluntarily leave or be forced out. The question has been what the quarterback will do with the next group that replaces him.

Joe Montana has done a great job with his multiple teams in San Francisco. He went from pitching to Dwight Clark to Jerry Rice, and won Super Bowls with both in the early and then late 1980s.

Tom Brady won six Super Bowls with the Patriots. But even though he had all that success during a 20-year career with a single franchise, the 2001 Patriots looked and played nothing like the 2018 Patriots who peaked the dynastic race — except from Brady, of course.

Mahomes rewarded the changes

Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City is having similar success with several iterations of the Chiefs.

Mahomes won by throwing the ball to Tyreek Hill and Sammy Watkins in 2020. Then Hill was traded and Watkins disappeared, so Mahomes also won with JuJu Smith-Schuster and a revamped offensive line.

Then Mahomes won it all again last season with another revamped line, more new outside receivers and, this time, a stifling defense.

Change is happening. But this does not always bring success.

Drew Brees had two or three different groups of teammates. He won a Super Bowl. Aaron Rodgers had three different sets of teammates and while he won the Super Bowl with Jordy Nelson, he didn’t quite get there with Davante Adams.

So where does Allen stand now after his first iteration of the Bills failed to reach, let alone win, the Super Bowl?

Foxborough, MA – December 1: New England Patriots LB Mack Wilson Sr. attempts to sack Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen. The Patriots lost to the Bills, 24-10. (Photo by Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Allen tries to do his best

“I’m going into seventh grade now, it’s crazy to think about,” Allen said. “But I feel like I’m still improving, I’m still learning a lot. I’m trying to be the best version of myself when I walk into that locker room.

“And again, there’s a lot to learn and a lot to grow and I think that’s what we’re doing.”

By the way, Allen doesn’t lament the change. He seems to embrace it during these off-season teaching sessions, either because it’s genuine or because he simply has no choice.

He knows it’s a “kind of a clean slate,” as he put it, for the 2024 bills.

“I’m approaching it as best I can,” Allen said. “As the best leader and best teammate I can be for the Buffalo Bills. And, ultimately, as the best quarterback I can be.”