It’s all about hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, not winning MVPs for the Bills QB

PITTSFORD, N.Y. — Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen relishes winning the MVP last season, an award he still continues to say was really a team honor, but also one that helped him finally shed the cloud hanging over him personally from the endless stream of doubters who have questioned him from the day he walked into the league as a big-armed passer from Wyoming.

But, while the MVP is nice, it’s not as nearly as important as the hardware he truly wants.

“I’d trade 10 of them for a ring,” Allen said during a break from practice here at St. John Fisher College, the Bills’ summer home.

That’s not to dismiss the importance of winning the award, which Allen is proud to have won. It’s just that it’s not the thing he wants most.

“I think we just received the trophy,” Allen said. “It’s in a box in my house. I couldn’t tell you where it’s at. It’s such a cool honor.

My speech talked about how it’s a team award more than an individual award. But it’s over and on to the next.”

On to the next means trying to shake the idea that the Bills and Allen are John Stockton and Karl Malone and Charles Barkley to Michael Jordan.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has been Jordan in the AFC.

History says Malone, Stockton, Barkley are great players, but they are viewed differently without a championship, however fair that is to them.

For now, Allen and the Bills are just like them.

Mahomes has Jordaned them every time in the playoffs, which he did again last year in a tough season-ending loss for the Bills in the AFC Championship game in January.

It was the fourth time the Bills have lost to Mahomes in the playoffs, all tough, close games.

“It’s a great analogy,” Bills general manager Brandon Beane said of the comparison to the Suns and Bulls and others that Jordan beat.

“We just have to keep moving forward to keep trying to get there. It’s a play here or a play there. We’re close.

But we can’t just prepare the team to beat the Chiefs. There are a lot of good teams in the AFC. I don’t think we’re far away.

We just have to make a stop here or there. We haven’t made the stop when we needed to make them.

We feel like we’ve upgraded our defense for that reason. We have to get the key stops.”

Make no mistake about it, the Bills are still Allen’s team. Now in his eighth season, his dynamic ability to play the quarterback position, coupled with his growth as a passer in Joe Brady’s offense, will carry this team as far as it goes.

But it’s the defense that will decide if they can get to the Super Bowl. A year ago, the Bills got by with an average defense that took the ball away 32 times, third best in the league.

That can’t be counted on year in and year out. So they did something about it in the offseason by adding a lot of bodies up front.

They signed veteran Joey Bosa as their marquee free agent and added end Michael Hoecht and Larry Ogunjobi as well.

Those two, however, are suspended for six games for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs.

They also drafted three defensive linemen in T.J. Sanders (second), Landon Jackson (third) and Deone Walker (fourth).

Sanders and Walker give the Bills much-needed size inside. That will help Ed Oliver, especially if Sanders can help push the pocket on third down.

Bosa has been plagued by injuries in his career with the Chargers, so the idea with him is to make sure he’s fine come playoff time.

That means he might be limited some in terms of snap count early. But that’s OK. The joke is he should be in bubble wrap until December when it’s time to chase down Lamar Jackson and sack Mahomes.

The rookies have all impressed at times since coming to the Bills. They join Oliver and DaQuan Jones inside and edges Greg Rousseau and A.J. Epenesa outside. Second-year edge Javon Solomon has flashed this summer as a pass rusher too.

That’s a lot of bodies to throw at a quarterback. There might not be an elite player — Oliver, Bosa and Rousseau are really good when healthy — but they will come in waves. It’s a deep group.

The Bills also used a first-round pick on corner Maxwell Hairston, but he is out for a month or so with a knee injury. That means veteran Tre’Davious White will be the starter.

“We feel a lot better about our defense,” Beane said.

As for Allen, the word is he’s even better this summer, having a much better feel in his second full year in the Brady-led offense.

The Bills don’t have a true No. 1 receiver, but they feel good enough about the group in Brady’s offense.

It is an offense that needs second-year receiver Keon Coleman and third-year tight end Dalton Kincaid to have good seasons. Free agent addition Josh Palmer gives them a solid outside threat — even if he isn’t a burner.

For Allen, it’s just refining his own abilities, even after the MVP.

“I am still trying to grow within the offense, be better with my base, getting the ball out in a timely fashion to our playmakers,” Allen said.

It helps that the top 10 offensive linemen are all back, a rarity in the NFL these days. It’s a line that allowed a league-low 14 sacks last season. It helps that Allen can move, but this line is a big reason why he won the MVP.

That MVP validates him in the eyes of many, even if he might not see it that way.

“I honestly don’t feel a lot of stuff you say I’ve taken,” Allen said.

“I am so internally motivated. I am my own biggest critic. There is nothing anybody can say about me that I haven’t told myself. I can promise you that.”

But until he wins a Super Bowl, there is still a lot to do. He knows it. The team knows. Bills coach Sean McDermott knows it.

“Whatever it takes to get over the hump, we have to do,” McDermott says.

“You have to have belief in yourself to do it. You don’t get there without it. There is no quit in us.

There is no quit in this team. It’s hard to become world champions. We are doing everything we can to win it. You have to love it and do whatever it takes to get there.”

Said Allen: “We are constantly telling ourselves that we still haven’t got there yet.

We haven’t accomplished what we set out to do. We’ve had good teams, but for whatever reason we have not done it.

We are determined to turn over every stone and leaf to find those answers. I think the older I’ve gotten, the quicker I get over the loss at the end. But it’s never easy.

I keep telling myself to trust God’s timing because it’s never wrong. It’s no different in this case. The only thing we can do is give ourselves another opportunity to get there”

It would be hard to believe this team with the MVP quarterback, an improved defense and a division that is questionable at best, won’t be in the mix again. The schedule is favorable as well, which will help.

Could the Bills end up as the top seed in the AFC? It’s highly possible and, in fact, I think it’s likely. Then maybe the torment of Mahomes might end.

No more playing second fiddle to Jordan.

That’s why all the Bills players and coach say the work in August is so important when the January playoffs seem so far away.

It would be easy to fast forward based on recent years, but chasing greatness and wiping away negative history is what drives this group. Nobody wants to be a footnote to Mahomes and the Chiefs or any other AFC team.

The Bills lost four straight Super Bowls in the 1990s, which still torments this area. It’s still an unreal feat getting there, but nobody cares.

Only winners matter, which is why one wonders how much more the Bills mafia can take?

Isn’t it time?

“We have to go out and earn that every day during camp,” Allen said. “We have to make sure we are present, being where our feet are.

Success last year doesn’t mean success this year. Building this team now is what we need to do. That’s how you have success down the road.”

One problem: Their Jordan is still slinging it for the Chiefs. Until he’s been taken down by the Bills, history won’t see this team any differently than it sees guys like Charles Barkley in the NBA — even with that Allen MVP trophy somewhere in a box in his house