ORCHARD PARK — It seemed like an off-target pass at first glance.
The coverage downfield was tight, so Josh Allen tossed a short pass to Keon Coleman, who had to make a sliding grab for minimal yards. But then Joe Brady grabbed Coleman, gave him instruction by demonstrating the proper steps of his route, tapped on the helmet and sent the rookie back to the huddle.
Now in his first offseason as the Buffalo Bills’ full-time offensive coordinator, Brady is running the show during voluntary minicamp. After inheriting Ken Dorsey’s offense midway through last season, Brady has been able to put his own spin on it, as the Bills even hired old New Orleans Saints colleague Ronald Curry to replace him as the quarterbacks coach.
But most of those changes may not be noticeable to the untrained eye. After all, it’s as Brady says, Allen’s offense now.
For all the blame placed on Dorsey over 1 ½ seasons, the Bills still had a top-five offense in the NFL, so Brady’s desire is to craft an offense based on the personnel on the roster, finding ways to make Allen comfortable by keeping some of what was working in the past and adding some new wrinkles.
“It’s trying to get a comfort level on the field for some of those guys, and so, your offense is Josh Allen’s offense, but it’s also about what your players do well,” Brady said Tuesday. “And so this is the time right now that we’re experimenting with some things like, ‘Hey, can this guy do this? Can this guy not do this?’ And we’ll continue to evolve, and come September, we’re hoping that we’ll have a good feel.”
The focus through training camp, though, will be how comfortable Allen is with a refurbished stock of weapons. Allen connected with Stefon Diggs a league-high 445 times over the previous four seasons, while Diggs and Gabe Davis accounted for 46.7% of Allen’s 137 touchdown passes since 2020.
Diggs was an attention-grabber for opposing defenses, while Davis forced defenses to respect the deep ball. But Allen is the biggest focus for defenses and Brady began to tap into all of his skills once he took over as play-caller.
Allen’s rushing attempts and yards nearly doubled in nine games (including the playoffs) under Brady, while running for four more touchdowns and the offense averaged one more point per game than it did in the first 10 games with Dorsey calling plays.
There is no question Allen’s running is essential to Buffalo’s offense, as long as it finds the sweet spot. The Bills are 16-3 (including playoffs) when Allen has between 50 and 79 yards rushing and the team averages 28 points per game, compared to 49-29 and 25.5 points per game when he has fewer than 50 yards. Meanwhile, when Allen surpasses 80 yards, the team is 3-8 and puts up three fewer points per game.
“You had to worry about Stefon Diggs right and that is different now,” Brady said. “But you also had to worry about Josh Allen and it’s a quarterback-driven league and at the end of the day, we’re fortunate that we still have him and the offense will still run through him. We’ll have to adjust and we’ll have to get a feel of how teams are playing us. We’re a few days in but we’re excited about the group that we have.”
Although the group the Bills have currently lacks a bonafide No. 1 receiver, they have versatility and depth. And once Brady became the play-caller, they began to shift away from a Diggs-dominant offense.
In the first 10 games of the season, Diggs and Davis accounted for 45% of the targets, compared to 34% in nine games with Brady calling plays. Tight end Dalton Kincaid is the favorite to become the go-to option after being second on the team in targets (91) and receptions (73) last season, but the Bills might have a different leader in receptions and targets each game, feeding Brady’s motto of “everybody eats.”
And while Kincaid, Curtis Samuel and Khalil Shakir were predominantly slot receivers and Keon Coleman and Marquez Valdes-Scantling are mostly outside receivers, the Bills plan to mix and match this season.
“It’s really right now our mentality as a receiver room is everybody’s trying to learn every different spot so we can play fast and not have to think about it,” Shakir said. “If you’re playing Z, and you got to run a go so the F can get open, you got to do it. And then five plays later it’ll probably flip flop. I definitely think us trying to spread and spread the ball, and get everybody open, get everybody involved.”
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The highlight of the Week 2 of voluntary minicamp came from the defense, as safety Damar Hamlin picked off an ill-advised throw by Allen, who tried to thread a pass up the numbers to running back Ty Johnson. Meanwhile, Tyler Bass bombed a 52-yard field goal with a strong wind at his back and then ended a special teams period by drilling a 70-yarder.
After two players were absent from OTAs last week, nine were not spotted during practice Tuesday. Running back James Cook, offensive lineman Travis Clayton, tight end Zach Davidson, defensive ends A.J. Epenesa, Von Miller and Rondell Bothroyd, defensive tackle Ed Oliver and cornerbacks Rasul Douglas and Cam Lewis were not in attendance.
It was the second week Douglas did not attend, while defensive tackle DaQuan Jones returned after missing last week. Offensive tackle Tommy Doyle (leg), linebacker Matt Milano (leg) and safety Mike Edwards (shoulder) were present, but did not participate in any team drills.