Josh Allen’s self-destruction is a flaw that could derail the Bills’ 2024 season

Unfounded and lazy stories are like a bad cold in that you just can’t shake them.

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen is almost universally regarded as one of the best quarterbacks in professional football. He has won NFL MVP votes in three of the last four seasons. His team has qualified for the playoffs in each of the last five campaigns and won playoff games in four of them. He is the only player in NFL history to have more than 40 touchdowns in four consecutive seasons and appears poised to do so again in the 2024 campaign.

And yet, some still doubt his abilities.

Questions regarding Allen’s reliability and status as an elite NFL quarterback stem largely from his preliminary scouting report and disappointing first professional seasons; Coming from Wyoming, the signalman was, admittedly, a ball of clay riddled with red flags for which many experts rightly had little hope. Although he was an athletic marvel, Allen had accuracy and mechanical issues with the Cowboys, with those issues carrying over into his first two professional seasons. It was not good as a rookie he threw for just over 2,000 yards and 12 interceptions against 10 touchdowns. He improved during the 2019 campaign, but was largely a game manager, keeping Buffalo’s offense moving as it finished the year 10-6 and secured a Wild Card berth .

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Allen exploded unexpectedly during the 2020 campaign, evolving from an athletic but limited quarterback to a world-renowned play destroyer. He passed for 37 touchdowns and over 4,500 yards that year, also racking up 421 yards and eight scores on the ground.

His rise was unexpected. Incredible, even. Some still can’t believe it, to the point where they continue to doubt Allen despite the fact that he has maintained this elite level of play – with the odd head-scratching decision here and there – in during the three seasons following his escape.

Bleacher Report’s Maurice Moton recently wrote an article outlining each contender’s flaw that could prove fatal in the 2024 NFL season, identifying Allen’s potential to “self-destruct” in the absence of the former No. 1 receiver Stefon Diggs as Buffalo’s biggest concern. on the season.

“This season, the Buffalo Bills are about to find out if Josh Allen can elevate a wide receiver corps or if he needs a can’t-miss target to perform at a Pro Bowl level,” Moton wrote. “. . . Even with Diggs on the roster, Allen put in a stellar performance. Some of them involved questionable decision-making from the pocket, leading to game-changing turnovers. In fact, Allen threw a career-high 18 interceptions last season.

“To replace Diggs, the Bills signed Curtis Samuel, Mack Hollins and Marquez Valdes-Scantling in free agency and selected Keon Coleman in the second round of the 2024 draft. But the collection of new receiver talent might not be enough to replace the production from Diggs and getting Allen out of bad decisions.

Concerns about the overall quality of Buffalo’s receiving corps following the offseason loss of Diggs and Gabriel Davis are warranted; Diggs, after all, is the Bills’ fourth-ranked all-time receiver, and he objectively played a big role in helping Allen go from glorified game manager to elite signal caller.

That said, the suggestion that Allen might “self-destruct” in his absence is merely a regurgitation of a narrative long rooted in fiction. dig help Allen, but he didn’t TO DO Allen, and the quarterback is clearly talented enough to succeed without the passer. He’s done very well during long stretches the past two seasons in which Diggs has been largely unproductive and impactless.

Plus, this won’t be the season the Bills “find out if Allen can elevate a receiving corps”; we already know he can. He’s done it many times before, even before he was This version of himself. Think back to 2018, when undrafted free agent Robert Foster looked like a legitimate NFL receiver while catching Allen’s bombs. Rewind to 2019, when John Brown and Cole Beasley, who were largely role players on their previous teams, simultaneously built career years playing with a sophomore.

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We can even look at Diggs, who immediately set a new career high in receiving yards after teaming up with the quarterback.

Sure, one could argue that each of these players benefited from playing a larger role in Buffalo’s offense than elsewhere, but to do that is simply to discredit and demean Allen for the sake of it.

It is good. He’s been good for a long time. It will probably continue to be good for even longer. To pretend otherwise is idiotic.

It’s possible that Allen will “self-destruct” in the absence of his former primary pass catcher. History and his talent suggest otherwise.