Josh Allen gets a message from Bills coach Sean McDermott to those who belittle his lack of a Super Bowl victory.
Super Bowl rings aren’t necessary for Josh Allen to be regarded as brilliant.
The Buffalo Bills are a team whose failure to win a Super Bowl defines them. I know it’s unjust, but everyone who has spent any time living in Western New York, including myself, can attest to its truth. It’s true that they are the only team in NFL history to lose four straight Super Bowls, but they are also the only team to win four straight. Somehow, getting to the biggest game in professional sports has come to be seen as a failure, even though it is anything but.
The Buffalo Bills are a team whose failure to win a Super Bowl defines them. I know it’s unjust, but everyone who has spent any time living in Western New York, including myself, can attest to its truth. It’s true that they are the only team in NFL history to lose four straight Super Bowls, but they are also the only team to win four straight. Somehow, getting to the biggest game in professional sports has come to be seen as a failure, even though it is anything but.
The Buffalo Bills of today, led by Josh Allen on the field and Sean McDermott on the sidelines for the last four seasons, have dominated the AFC East division, but they haven’t enjoyed the same level of sustained postseason success as those teams from the early 1990s with Jim Kelly, Bruce Smith, and Thurman Thomas. The narrative from the outside media would still be the same, though, even if they had won four straight Super Bowls without winning a Lombardi Trophy: this is a quarterback, coach, club, and city that is still a long way from the finish line.
Even though the Bills, led by one of the most dynamic and dominant quarterbacks in the NFL, haven’t made it to the Super Bowl during his tenure, Sean McDermott is unwavering in his belief that his team can continue to improve and go farther in the playoffs. He also believes that this Buffalo Bills football era has been extremely successful even if a Super Bowl title isn’t the ultimate goal.
Coral Smith of NFL.com reports that McDermott said to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, “I think it would be kind of narrow-minded to say we haven’t had success or Josh hasn’t had success.” “Because winning in the NFL is so difficult, you have to kind of start over every year and focus on each game individually. However, we’re all expecting Josh to continue evolving like the franchise’s face has always done and to truly be that.
Josh Allen’s Development
Josh Allen was a raw and inconsistent passer with exceptional athletic gifts—the size and running ability of a tight end combined with a bazooka for a right arm—when he left the University of Wyoming to enter the 2018 NFL Draft. These qualities were so uncommon for a quarterback that Allen felt like a lock to be selected first overall by the Cleveland Browns. The Buffalo Bills chose Allen with the seventh overall choice in the draft after the Browns chose to wager on Baker Mayfield’s lineage, the Heisman Trophy winner. In his rookie season, Allen started eleven games and was a perfect fit for the pre-draft description. While 631 rushing yards and 8 touchdowns were precisely what Bills fans had to be expecting when he was chosen, 10 touchdown throws to 12 interceptions wasn’t ideal.
Josh Allen has changed with time, as was to be expected. Although Allen intentionally runs less now than when he was a younger, less experienced quarterback, you can still bank on him to tuck it and run in the most crucial moments of the Bills’ biggest games. However, Allen’s biggest growth has come as a passer. In his first year, Allen completed just 52% of his pass attempts; however, by the third year, Allen’s completion percentage had increased to 69%. That Allen made an official breakthrough in his third season—placing second in the MVP vote behind the Green Bay Packers and sending the Buffalo Bills to the AFC Championship Game for the first time since Jim Kelly, Bruce Smith, and Thurman Thomas were circling the wagons—is scarcely surprising.
The Bills have lost three AFC Divisional Round games since the 2020 AFC Championship Game, all three against the eventual AFC Champion. The Buffalo Bills have lost three straight postseason games to the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes. Josh Allen may not be the Dan Marino to Patrick Mahomes’ Joe Montana or the Charles Barkley to Mahomes’ Michael Jordan, but losing to a legitimate NFL dynasty shouldn’t be a reflection on Allen’s career or a sign that the Bills haven’t been successful in this age. Josh Allen, who is without a doubt one of the best in the game, will regrettably suffer as a result of ring culture’s poisoning of the media and fan discourse surrounding the sport.
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