1. Who's Buffalo's most dangerous new weapon?
With the additions of several free agents and draft picks, Bills Mafia has plenty of new faces to watch this season. Bleacher Report picked a potential most dangers new weapon for each NFL team, and edge rusher Greg Rousseau is their choice for the Bills.
Buffalo Bills: Edge Greg Rousseau
Despite a solid defense—ranked 14th in yards allowed—and the league's second-ranked offense, the Buffalo Bills only managed a good-not-great 38 sacks in 2020. The addition of rookie first-round pick Gregory Rousseau could change Buffalo's pass rush.
The Bills feature an explosive offense that will frequently force opponents into pass-first mode. Quarterback Josh Allen can put up points in bunches, leaving the opposition to play catch-up. Rousseau is a high-upside pass-rusher who can take advantage of such situations.
While Rousseau opted out of the 2020 season, he put his explosiveness and game-wrecking ability on full display the previous season. In 2019, he had 15.5 sacks, 19.5 tackles for loss and 54 total tackles.
Buffalo can unleash havoc by getting ahead on the scoreboard and turning Rousseau loose as a rotational edge-rusher. That'll lead to a lot of blown-up plays courtesy of Buffalo's newest defensive star.
2. Josh Allen ranks here on top 10 deep passers of 2020
We all know Bills quarterback Josh Allen improved his deep ball in 2020. He did this by completing 40.6% of passes that traveled 20 or more yards. Around the NFL Writer Nick Shook reviewed and ranked deep-ball quarterbacks around the league based on completion percentage and completion percentage over expectation from last season. The quarterbacks who made the list had to post a passer rating of at least 100 and have at least 30 deep pass attempts in 2020. Allen made the list at No. 10.
10. Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen
Deep attempts: 26-of-64, 771 yards, 9:3 TD-to-INT ratio, 106.2 passer rating
Comp: 40.6%
xComp: 33.5%
CPOE: +7.1%
All right Bills fans, put away your torches and pitchforks. Your newfound king has finally received his recognition on this list. As we all recall, Allen was a dynamite passer in 2020 and one with a penchant for making the big play. The arrival of Stefon Diggs from Minnesota helped Allen finish with the second-most deep completions to wide open receivers (10) in 2020. That number deflated his CPOE but didn't tank it, as evidenced by his finish in the top 10 at +7.1 percent.
Like others on this list, Allen's improvement in 2020 was clearly visible in his deep passing numbers, as he leapt from -10.1 CPOE in 2019 to +7.1 in 2020, an increase of 17.2 percentage points, the second-largest jump in the league behind Daniel Jones (19.7). Allen's ability to make plays with his legs shined through these numbers as well, as he led the league in deep completions while on the run with eight. Allen showed in 2020 that he's the franchise quarterback Buffalo hoped he'd be when it selected him in the first round of the 2018 draft. These numbers only reinforce that reality.
3. PFF grades Buffalo's 2018 draft class
Having three full seasons under their belt and approaching their fourth, PFF looked back at the 2018 NFL draft class to evaluate each team's haul and how it compared to their immediate post-draft evaluation. According to PFF, the Bills graded out as 'average' right after the draft, but now have an 'elite' class due to their production after three years.
BUFFALO BILLS
Round 1 (7): QB Josh Allen, Wyoming
Round 1 (16): LB Tremaine Edmunds, Virginia Tech
Round 3 (96): DI Harrison Phillips, Stanford
Round 4 (121): CB Taron Johnson, Weber State
Round 5 (154): CB Siran Neal, Jacksonville State
Round 5 (166): OG Wyatt Teller, Virginia Tech
Round 6 (187): WR Ray-Ray McCloud III, Clemson
Round 7 (255): WR Austin Proehl, North Carolina
Then: Average
Now: Elite
While linebacker Tremaine Edmunds has never graded higher than 59.4 overall for a single season, I'm sure Bills fans couldn't care less, given how Josh Allen played in 2020. That makes this easily an elite class. Sadly, it would have been on another level had they not dealt fifth-rounder Wyatt Teller to the Browns back in 2019, as the former Virginia Tech star became an elite guard this past year.
