Josh Allen has an MVP trophy, a second-place finish in that voting, two third-place finishes, 83 regular-season wins, and five AFC East titles. He does not have a Super Bowl appearance. He does not even have an AFC championship. His left tackle thinks that’s on everybody else.
Dion Dawkins, appearing on NFL Network, was asked what more the Bills should expect from their quarterback in 2025. His answer amounted to: nothing. The question is misdirected.
“I don’t have any [expectations],” Dawkins said. “I don’t add any more extra pressure to that kid that he already has. Josh understands what he’s doing, what he’s not doing. He understands what the mindset is and what we all expect. Just like we know what Josh expects from us, as well, to help him get there. When it comes down to it, Josh is Josh, and he’s gonna be Josh. He’s No. 1 for a reason, so I don’t think that we need any more expectations than we already have.”
Then Dawkins turned the spotlight on the locker room around Allen — and didn’t leave himself out of it.
“It seems like we need all the pieces around him to continue to get better to help him get over that hump,” he said. “Because if Josh is No. 1, he’s at his best, right? If I’m not top 10 or I’m not No. 1, that means that I’m not at my best, which means I have to do better. Dawson [Knox], Dalton [Kincaid], Joe Brady, [James] Cook, everybody — everybody has to do better. So we’re all going to be that and do that so we can get over that hump, and we can be exactly what we want to be and stop talking about it, right? I’m ready for it. It’s time.”
That’s a left tackle naming names — his tight ends, his offensive coordinator, his running back, and himself — on national television and saying the gap between Buffalo and a Lombardi Trophy isn’t the guy under center. Allen is 8-7 in the postseason. He’s 0-2 in conference title games. The Bills haven’t hoisted the trophy in franchise history, and the last quarterback who carried this kind of weight in western New York was Jim Kelly, who got there four times and never won one either.
Dawkins has been Allen’s blind-side protector since Day One. He’s seen every snap, every scramble, every throw into a window that shouldn’t have been there. When a man who’s stood next to you in the trenches for seven years says you’re not the problem, that carries a different weight than a talk-radio take.
The names Dawkins dropped tell you where he thinks the margins are. Dalton Kincaid caught 44 passes last season after a 73-catch rookie year — a step back, not forward. Dawson Knox has been a reliable red-zone target but battled injuries. James Cook has rushed for over 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons but has also fumbled at the worst possible moments. Joe Brady took over as offensive coordinator mid-2023 and has kept the unit productive, but the postseason scoring has dried up when the competition stiffens.
You can have the best quarterback in football — and Allen’s 2024 MVP makes a strong case that he is — and still come up short if the supporting cast doesn’t match his level. Dawkins isn’t asking for miracles. He’s asking for everybody to meet the standard their quarterback has already set. The film doesn’t lie: Allen’s been carrying more than his share, and the guys around him know it.
Whether that translates from a June interview to January football is the only question that matters in Buffalo. Dawkins ended with three words that sound like a man tired of answering the same one: “I’m ready for it. It’s time.”
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