Bills' 'reason for optimism' for 2024 NFL season identified

The NFL offseason is always an optimistic time for football fans.

Players are generally healthy and working on clean tables. They flash against the grain in OTAs and minicamps. Coachspeak is subscribed – fans, in droves, are talking about how competitive their respective teams will be in the upcoming campaign.

The often (cautiously) optimistic Buffalo faithful are hopeful ahead of the 2024 NFL season, but perhaps less so than in recent years; The Bills, who have qualified for the playoffs in each of the last five seasons, have seen significant turnover in the spring, moving on from solid starters like Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer, Tre'Davious White, Mitch Morse, Gabriel Davis and Stefon Diggs. in a bid to extend his championship window and unlock salary cap flexibility. These maneuvers have left the team with a younger roster that, on paper, is no longer as strong as before, with some national experts expecting the team to take a step back in the upcoming season .

There are still sources of hope, however, players who plan to keep Buffalo in contention for the championship despite its turnover. There's no better personification of this idea than quarterback Josh Allen, a world-beater of a passer who is objectively one of the best signal-callers in the league. He is the only player in NFL history to have more than 40 touchdowns in four consecutive seasons, and he has won NFL MVP votes in three of the last four years. The Bills will remain competitive as long as Allen runs their offense.

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This idea was echoed in Pro Football Focus' recent article highlighting a “reason for optimism” for every NFL team heading into the 2024 season. Writer Dalton Wasserman praised Allen in the article, even suggesting that the magnitude of the team's offseason turnover is overstated.

“Despite the loss of Stefon Diggs and the perception of constant chaos in Buffalo, Allen is the main reason the Bills win games,” Wasserman wrote. “The disappearance of his supporting roles is greatly exaggerated. Although losing Diggs hurts, he didn't have a 90-yard game after Week 6 last season.

“The offense became more balanced and the target share became more of a meritocracy as the campaign progressed. The combination of James Cook, Khalil Shakir, Curtis Samuel, Dalton Kincaid and rookies Keon Coleman and Ray Davis will be very capable of winning the AFC East with Allen leading the way.

The loss of Diggs, Wasserman writes, will likely be felt throughout Buffalo's offense, as the perennial Pro Bowler led the team in targets and receiving yards in each of his four seasons in Western New York. That said, his absence will allow the Bills to take a more democratic approach to aerial production, spreading the ball between second-year tight end Dalton Kincaid, third-year contributor Khalil Shakir, free agent signee Curtis Samuel and the rookie. Keon Coleman.

Consider the team's projected prowess on the ground: Allen is universally considered one of the best rushing quarterbacks in football (3,611 career rushing yards and 53 touchdowns), while the third-string tailback James Cook was sixth in the league in scrimmage yards last year (1,567) – and it's clear the team's offense, while tweaked, is still talented. There's little reason to believe Buffalo can't finish in the top 10 in total offense for a fifth straight year during the 2024 season.