Josh Allen has been an eager student this week.
The Buffalo Bills’ star quarterback is going through a big change this offseason, with Ken Dorsey being promoted from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator, replacing Brian Daboll after the St. Francis High School graduate left that job to become head coach of the New York Giants.
“I think the big takeaway that I've gotten already, it's just asking as many questions as possible during these meetings that we're having now,” Allen said Wednesday when asked how he’s dealing with the change. “Trying to get on the same page, understanding what he's thinking, why he's calling a certain play. I think that's why me and ‘Dabs’ had such success. I understood why he was calling plays. He understood the concepts I liked, I didn't like, so having that open line of communication with Dorsey.”
Allen knows that there will be changes to the Bills’ offense. Dorsey will undoubtedly have his own wrinkles to add.
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“I'm excited to see what he can do,” Allen said. “He's worked his tail off to get to the position where he's at right now. But asking those questions and having that open line of communication of, 'Hey, I don't like this concept,' and this and that. For the most part, he knows that because he's been around me for three years and vice versa. I'm looking forward to being able to run some plays that he's calling. I've got no doubt that he's going to be successful at what he does.”
Dorsey, a former NFL quarterback himself who was a highly decorated college player at Miami (Fla.), has served as Allen’s quarterbacks coach the past three seasons, so there’s already a comfort level between the two – so much so that Allen gave Dorsey a strong recommendation for the offensive coordinator job after Daboll left.
Still, it will be a different voice relaying the plays to Allen this year, and the quarterback said that’s going to take some getting used to.
“As a quarterback, I'm just the extension of the offensive coordinator. Whatever he's trying to call on the field, I got to go out there and understand why and then try to go out and execute it and kind of be that relay between the other players and what he's trying to call,” Allen said. “There's some things that we're switching up, there's some things that we're probably going to keep the same. We won't really know until we're actually calling plays, whether it's in training camp or in preseason and trying to get that feeling down of the flow.
“I've got supreme faith in what Dorsey is capable of and the offensive mind that he is, and he's been great so far. And I don't expect anything less.”
It’s not just Dorsey calling the plays that Allen is adjusting to, either. Joe Brady was hired to replace Dorsey as quarterbacks coach.
“I've loved it,” Allen said of his early impressions of working with Brady. “He's a big ‘Office’ guy. I don't know if you guys have ever seen my Twitter but I like 'The Office.' I like the GIFs. He's very relatable, he's very energetic in our meetings. We've only had two meetings, but just the vibe that he gives off is really cool. He's been around a lot of different types of offensive minds and he's one of those guys who just … I don't know how long he's going to be here as a quarterback coach because I'm sure he's going to have opportunities to be an offensive coordinator again. I know he was with Carolina last year, but just the things that he's able to talk about and the things that he sees, it's very impressive, especially from a guy that's so young and I'm glad we have (him).”
The start of spring workouts can be viewed as an unofficial beginning of the 2022 season. That also means that questions about the supremely disappointing way the 2021 season for the Bills ended may finally come to an end (or at least reduced in their frequency). To that end, Allen can only hope.
“Everybody wants to talk about that and it is what it is. It happened, there's no going back,” he said. “If it was three months ago, it might as well have been 10 years ago. We've completely turned our focus toward this next season and trying to figure out how do we take that next step? How do we win that Super Bowl? Every team's goal should be to win the Super Bowl every single year and it's 31 teams that are going to be unhappy at the end of the season. So again, we got to find a way to get to it and win it.”
One of the lasting legacies from that instant classic between the Bills and Chiefs is a change to the NFL’s postseason overtime rules, with each team now being guaranteed at least one possession.
“A year too late,” Allen said with a smile. “No, I’m just playing. Again, I didn’t hate the rule. I don’t know if people think that I had something to do with it. It just happened to be us that year. I alluded to it after the game. I think the Kansas City Chiefs were in the same position the year before they won the Super Bowl. The Patriots beat them in overtime. They didn’t get to see the ball. So it is what it is. Whether we’re in that situation again, I guess now we’ll have a chance.”
Asked if he was cool with it being known as the “Josh Allen rule,” moving forward, the quarterback expressed some hesitation.
“I don’t really want it to be,” he said. “You know, I just love football.”
That’s why Allen reported to the start of spring practices, which are voluntary for players. That’s not something every quarterback around the league does.
“I don't feel like I need to be here, but I absolutely want to be here,” he said. “I love hanging out with the guys and developing these types of relationships that you don't get otherwise. I love going to camp and staying at St. John Fisher for those two weeks or whatever it is, staying up, playing cards, video games, whatever it is, developing that camaraderie.”
Allen’s celebrity profile has exploded this offseason, aided by the legendary nature of his performance against Kansas City. Since then, he’s participated in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, made the rounds on media row at the Super Bowl and, just recently, it was announced that he would team up with Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes to take on Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady in a charity golf exhibition – “The Match” – on June 1.
“If this was his first offseason or second offseason I'd be a little bit more concerned, but the way his plan unfolded through year 1-2-3 and now beyond that, he's mature enough to handle it the right way and take it all in stride,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said of Allen dealing with his new level of fame.
The coach also isn’t worried about Allen holding his own when it comes to trash talk in the match – which the quarterback displayed a short time later.
“Gotta take the graybeards down,” the 25-year-old Allen said of Brady, 44, and Rodgers, 38. “To get out there and then talk some smack to Aaron and Tom, people are going to love that, and I'm going to love doing it. I'm excited for the opportunity.”
