The Buffalo Bills are drawing plenty of attention this season because of a defense that’s being rebuilt under Jim Leonhard. But the more interesting question might be on the other side of the ball, where Joe Brady has a chance to steer Buffalo back toward the kind of offense that once made it one of the league’s most aggressive passing teams.
That’s the lane the Bills should want to get back into.
Back in 2020, during Buffalo’s AFC East-winning run to the AFC Championship Game, the offense leaned hard into Josh Allen’s arm. The Bills posted the NFL’s highest first-down pass rate in all situations at 61% during the regular season, and they were even more pass-heavy in neutral situations, throwing on 64% of first downs when the score margin sat between -8 and +8. Brian Daboll was calling the plays then, and he clearly understood how far Allen could take an offense when the passing game was the engine.
That 44-34 win over the Seahawks still says plenty about that group. Allen threw 31 times while the Bills ran it just twice in the first half, and Buffalo put up 24 points in the opening two quarters. That offense was, as the source put it, “an absolute wagon.”
The Bills didn’t exactly abandon that identity right away. They remained the NFL’s top first-down pass rate team in 2021 and ranked second in that category in 2022 under Ken Dorsey. But the balance shifted more recently, and a lot of that had to do with the roster and the way Sean McDermott wanted the team to play.
The Bills’ receiving room outside of Khalil Shakir was one of the weakest in the league a year ago, and McDermott’s preference for a punishing run game made sense. It helped Buffalo get back to another AFC Championship Game, and the team was a blown call away from a third trip last season while James Cook won the rushing title.
Still, the numbers from 2025 show just how far the offense drifted from its earlier identity. Excluding Week 18 against the Jets, Buffalo passed on only 33.3% of its neutral-situation first downs, the lowest rate in football. On first downs in all situations, the Bills threw just 39% of the time.
That’s where the argument for a shift back becomes pretty straightforward. DJ Moore, Khalil Shakir and whoever wins the WR3 job do not match prime Stefon Diggs, Cole Beasley and John Brown.
But Allen is still Allen, and that’s the constant that matters most. Moore is Buffalo’s biggest investment at receiver since Diggs, and Dalton Kincaid also gives the offense a major weapon after being the NFL’s most prolific tight end on a per-snap basis last season.
There’s also no need to pretend Cook disappears from the equation. He’s become a reliable big-play threat and one of the Bills’ most dependable weapons over the past two seasons.
But a more pass-first approach would help preserve him, especially with his career nearing the 1,000-touch mark and the modern running back cliff sitting around 1,800 touches. He’s still only a little more than halfway to the 1,500-carry cliff, but he turns 27 in late September, and backs often start to lose efficiency between 27 and 29.
Another 300-carry season wouldn’t exactly be ideal for him or for Buffalo.
Cook can still matter plenty as a changeup, especially when weather becomes a factor or when the passing game isn’t humming. But the Bills’ best path is still the one built around Allen and the air attack. He’s the best player on the team and, in the source’s view, the best player in the NFL, and he already has a firm grasp on Brady’s offense the same way he once did in Daboll’s.
That’s why Buffalo should look a lot more like those pass-happy teams from 2020 through 2022 in 2026, especially on first down. For this offense, that’s the formula that works.
In Other News...
Josh Allen Has Never Had A Better MVP Setup In Buffalo
Training camp always brings the same annual MVP chatter, but this year the conversation around Josh Allen feels a little different in Buffalo. The Bills have spent the offseason trying to make life easier on their quarterback, and the arrival of DJ Moore gives Allen a proven target who can help steady an offense that has leaned heavily on his arm and legs for too long. Add in the new coaching direction and the sense is clear: Allen is walking into a setup built to maximize both production and visibility, which is exactly the kind of backdrop that tends to matter when voters start sorting out the leagues best player.
The challenge, of course, is that Allen is hardly alone in that race. Lamar Jackson is adjusting to a new offensive structure in Baltimore, while Joe Burrow is coming back into a Cincinnati situation that looks as complete as it has in years. Still, Buffalos case is the one that stands out because it pairs a quarterback already in the MVP mix with the kind of roster and sideline changes that can turn a strong season into a signature one. The only question now is whether the Bills have finally put enough around Allen to make the award chase feel less like a one-man carry job and more like a true contenders run. [Read more 🡒]
Doug Flutie Still Divides Bills Fans In One All-Time Debate
Doug Fluties place in Bills history has always been a little more complicated than a simple ranking exercise. He belongs in the same conversation with Jim Kelly, Josh Allen and Joe Ferguson as one of the franchises most memorable quarterbacks, and his path to Buffalo was unlike anyone elses, built on a long professional career that stretched across multiple leagues and included major success in Canada before he ever became a familiar name in Western New York.
Fluties legacy in Buffalo still carries a split-screen feel because of what he brought to the team in the late 1990s and what his arrival represented to fans who watched every snap. He helped push the Bills back into the playoffs in back-to-back seasons, but his time there also left behind one of the defining debates of that era, a reminder that even a quarterback with a strong rsum can leave a franchise with admiration, frustration and a few unanswered questions all at once. [Read more 🡒]
James Cooks Market Value Will Frustrate Bills Fans
Running back value around the NFL has been a tricky conversation for years, and James Cook is the latest reminder of how quickly the market can flatten out even for a productive player. ESPNs Bill Barnwell recently ran through theoretical trade values for a handful of Bills, and Cook landed in a tier that reflects the positions diminished standing leaguewide and the contract realities that come with it.
For Buffalo fans, the frustrating part is what that says about the return in any hypothetical deal. Cooks value is being dragged down by the same forces that have made running backs harder to move for premium picks, and Barnwells exercise put him alongside players who are more likely to be viewed as useful pieces than headline-grabbing assets. It is all academic for now, though, because the Bills are not shopping Cook and plan to keep him in the fold. [Read more 🡒]