ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Buffalo Bills offense has been one of the best in the league for years — but there’s plenty to prove with bunch of new faces in town for offensive coordinator Joe Brady.
While he’s not a new face, Brady is in somewhat of a new position, having a full offseason to implement his system after taking over on an interim basis midway through last year following the firing of Ken Dorsey.
No matter what changes Brady makes, in his eyes, one thing remains constant.
"This is Josh Allen’s offense, right?" Brady said prior to Tuesday's practice during organized team activities. "You’re going to put together the offense around the guys that you got. For us to just say, 'Hey, we’re just going to scrap everything and everything was broken,' that wasn’t the case. There’ll be some elements of things that I believe in, but it’s more like tell me who we have on our football team and the guys and what they can do well and we’re going to do that."
Of course, one of the biggest differences for Brady’s crew is the wide receiver room — where longtime targets like Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis are gone — along with a host a new additions Brady will work to incorporate into the attack.
At the moment, it appears the Bills are unproven at best when it comes to having a No. 1 receiver option in the mold of Diggs.
"Only time will that with that, right? At the end of the day when you played the Buffalo Bills for however many years you had to worry about Stefon Diggs, and that is different now. But you also had to worry about Josh Allen. It’s a quarterback driven league. At the end of the day, fortunate that we still have him and the offense will run through him. We’ll have to adjust and we’ll have to get a feel for how teams play us. Obviously, we’re a few days in but we’re excited about the group that we have," Brady said.
Khalil Shakir is the only wideout remaining from last season who was a significant contributor to the offense.
"This year the receiver room obviously like completely different, but everybody vibes," Shakir said. "In my head, it’s like trying to help as much as I can so we can all get on the same page and what Josh is thinking is huge."
During Tuesday's practice, Allen and the other quarterbacks continued to find success on shorter routes. Rookie Keon Coleman, tight end Dalton Kincaid, Shakir and Curtis Samuel were frequent targets.
A team in transition — but one that still has the same lofty aspirations and a quarterback to back it up.