Could Josh Allen calling some plays for the Buffalo Bills tomorrow night actually be a good idea? I think it absolutely could be.

Bills head coach Joe Brady was asked about Allen this week heading into the preseason finale against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Brady had glowing things to say about his quarterback, praising how Allen is throwing the football and where he stands heading into the regular season. 

Brady said Allen wouldn’t be suiting up in the game, but added some fun context.

“He’ll be right there with me, and hopefully I’ll let him call some plays, you know, maybe during the game. He wants it all the time. But yeah, Josh is in a really good, really good place,” Brady said.

Allen, for his part, leaned into it when asked about the possibility (quite tongue-in-cheek, I might say).

“I’d like to think I’m a pretty balanced play caller, but as a quarterback, you know, the plays that are the plays you want to get to, they often come off the call sheet early. So I would say I’m an explosive playcaller,” Allen said.

When asked in a follow-up about whether fans should expect to see it in the game, Allen kept it light.

“I don’t know, he usually talks a pretty big game. He’s told me the last few years he was gonna let me do it, so we’ll see,” Allen said.

Why this matters more than it sounds

Now, on the surface, letting Josh Allen call plays in a preseason game might sound like a throwaway storyline. However, I actually think it could be a legitimately good move for Buffalo.

For reference, we haven’t really seen this play out with teams publicly. The closest recent example came in 2022, when Kliff Kingsbury and the Arizona Cardinals let Kyler Murray call a couple of drives during a preseason game. It’s rare, and that’s part of what makes this noteworthy.

I see two reasons this could benefit the Bills if Brady follows through.

First, for Allen specifically, getting a chance to step into a coordinator mindset could be valuable heading into this season. You never know where something like this leads. Maybe down the line, Buffalo transitions to letting Allen call plays in a 2-minute drill or in specific situational spots during the regular season. 

He’s 30 years old and entering Year 9 in the NFL. The experience is there. Can you fully replicate that during a meaningful game? I don’t know. 

But I think this does far more good than harm because it could allow Allen to see the game from a completely different perspective at this stage of his career. A perspective that could greatly help him down the line. 

The roster cutdown angle

The second reason, certainly the more immediate reason, is that roster cutdown day falls on Sunday. Joe Brady and the Bills coaching staff need to evaluate everything as cleanly as possible heading into final decisions. 

An opportunity for Brady to step back and watch the offense from a bird’s-eye view, rather than being locked into his play-calling responsibilities, could be huge. He’d get a cleaner look at the backend roster guys while Allen calls plays. This could let Brady better evaluate who belongs on the 53-man roster and who fills the depth roles.

That evaluation angle doesn’t get talked about enough. Joe Brady getting to watch the Bills offense without the mental load of calling plays gives him a different vantage point right before the week’s toughest decisions. 

Even if it’s only for a brief period, it could serve him well as he navigates the 53 alongside general manager Brandon Beane. 

The bottom line

Look, regardless of how it shakes out, it would be fun to watch Josh Allen call some plays in a preseason game. It makes the game more entertaining, and I think it has real, tangible benefits. 

Who knows if the Bills will actually go through with it against Pittsburgh. I don’t know if Allen fully believes they will either. 

But if they do, I think there could be both immediate and long-term upside for this Bills team heading into the season.