Before the season, Bills should reach the playoffs. They were the consensual favorites to win their division. It was not outrageous to think that they could win twice in the postseason and reach the AFC Championship Game.
How they got there is easily understood now, with a 19 game retrospective, but their path was completely unexpected just a few months ago. In other words, nobody knew that Buffalo would have one of the best attacks in football.
By the numbers, no team has improved more on that side of the ball. One could argue that no player on either side has improved more than Josh Allen, who catapulted into MVP containment in Year 3. He didn’t do it alone, of course.
The guy behind the guy is offensive coordinator Brian Daboll. And he is the 2020 AP NFL Assistant Coach of the Year.
Daboll was elected the winner in NFL Honors on Saturday. Consider this the culmination of three years working alongside Allen, who joined the league as one of the crudest teams in the top 10 in recent memory.
The two arrived in Buffalo just a few months apart, but success was not immediate. Bills was 31st in the offensive DVOA that first season. They were the 21st last year. This year they were the fifth. Thus, his attack by goalkeepers rose to second place in the league with 31.3 points per game, an increase of 11.7 points over the previous campaign.
After reaching the postseason in 2019 with the strength of a first-rate defense, Bills beat AFC East this season and won their first playoff victory in 25 years, mainly because of their attack.
This started with Daboll helping Allen to become a more accurate passer – his completion percentage has increased from 52.8 to 58.8 to 69.2 since 2018. The 45-year-old OC has also adjusted its schemes to better match Buffalo staff , driven by the addition of Stefon Diggs and creating a consistent attack on the field. From week 1 onwards, the Daboll unit took over the games against the poor and premier defenses (see: Rams, Patriots, Dolphins, Colts).
The former Patriots assistant had been an offensive coordinator for three NFL teams before joining Sean McDermott’s team. But never for more than two years. Even a stint as Alabama’s offensive coordinator, which produced a national championship, lasted only one season.
Daboll has found a home in western New York and, after sparking interest in two chief technical vacancies, will be back for more in 2021. That could be a super development for the accounts.