Josh Allen already owns a place at the top of the Buffalo Bills’ touchdown record book, and Monday night could bring a few more names into focus.
Allen moved past Andre Reed and Thurman Thomas last week to take over the franchise lead in touchdowns, and that milestone is now locked in. The attention shifts to what comes next, with James Cook, Greg Rousseau and Dawson Knox all sitting on the edge of Buffalo history.
Cook is the easiest one to circle. He needs 20 rushing yards against the Los Angeles Rams to reach 4,700 for his career, and that feels well within reach considering he hasn’t finished a game with fewer than 75 rushing yards this season. That’s the kind of number you almost feel comfortable writing down before the game starts.
Allen, meanwhile, is tied with Priest Holmes for 16th place on the NFL’s all-time rushing touchdown list with 86. One rushing score against the Rams would put him alone in that spot, and two would keep the chase moving.
Allen opened the season with three straight games of two rushing touchdowns, so a big night on the ground wouldn’t be out of character. If he gets back to that pace, he could even reach 90 career rushing touchdowns over the next two games, which would tie him with Eric Dickerson and Curtis Martin.
Knox has two different milestones within reach. He needs 13 receiving yards to pass James Lofton on Buffalo’s all-time receiving yards list, which would move him into 16th place in franchise history.
He also sits one receiving touchdown behind Jerry Butler, with 28 career scores to Butler’s 29. The yards mark feels like the cleaner path, but the touchdown chase is there too if Allen decides to look his way near the goal line.
Rousseau is right there as well. He has 38 career sacks, leaving him just half a sack behind Darryl Talley on Buffalo’s all-time list.
One sack against the Rams would move him into eighth place in team history. And if he gets rolling, there’s another layer to watch: two sacks would give him 40 for his career and tie his personal best with eight this season, while three would push him to nine and set a new career high.
Then there’s Cook again, because his place in the Bills’ rushing hierarchy is starting to get real. He rushed for 75 yards against New England while Allen had just four, trimming the gap between them from 230 yards to 159.
Cook now sits fifth on Buffalo’s all-time rushing list, with Allen fourth, and if Cook ever passes him, Fred Jackson, O.J. Simpson and Thurman Thomas would be next in line.
To do it against the Rams, Cook would need to outgain Allen by at least 160 yards.
That’s a heavy lift, no question. But Cook already has a 154-yard rushing game this season, so the idea isn’t off the board yet.
So the Bills’ record book watch for Monday night comes with a little bit of everything: Cook closing in on another career total, Rousseau inching up the sack chart, Knox chasing a pair of marks, and Allen still stacking up names in both the Bills and NFL histories.
In Other News...
Bills Face A New Concern With D.J. Moore Before Rams Game
D.J. Moores first season with the Bills has already taken an uneasy turn. Acquired from the Bears in the offseason, the receiver has been dealing with a shoulder injury since Week 4 against the Patriots, and Buffalo got another reminder of his status Thursday when he was not on the practice field.
Moore left that Patriots game in the first half and did not return, and the injury has limited his production since. With the Rams coming up, Buffalo has a new concern surrounding a player it brought in to give the passing game another layer, and his availability is suddenly a storyline worth watching closely. [Read more 🡒]
Josh Allen Just Shut Down One Patriots-Bills Storyline
Josh Allens legs became a talking point after Buffalos win over New England, but the quarterback tried to tamp that down as the Bills turned their attention to the Rams in Week 5. Allen was efficient through the air, going 23 of 33 for 253 yards with a touchdown and an interception, and he also found the end zone once on the ground despite logging only five carries for four yards.
The speculation picked up after he took a low hit to his left knee in the Week 3 win over the Chargers, leading some to wonder whether it had changed the way he ran against the Patriots. Allen pushed back on that idea, keeping the focus on moving forward as Buffalo keeps its streak of regular-season starts intact, with the veteran quarterback not having missed one since 2018. [Read more 🡒]
Bills Early-Game Approach Is Putting Joe Brady Under Pressure
Joe Bradys first season running the Bills has started the way plenty of coaches would take it, with a 3-1 record and a team still trying to settle into a new rhythm. One of the clearest shifts has come at the coin toss, where Buffalo has chosen to receive first every time after winning, a departure from recent seasons and a sign of the more aggressive tone Brady wanted from the offense.
So far, though, the payoff has been limited. The Bills have managed points on only one of their four opening drives, and the early-script issue has become part of the broader evaluation of a team still finding its footing on both sides of the ball, especially with the defense adjusting under Jim Leonhard. It is the kind of small but revealing trend that can linger if the first-drive production does not start matching the intent behind it. [Read more 🡒]