Was Josh Allen (slightly) less effective this season? We looked at the raw data
Last week, Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady assigned Josh Allen some homework: Review your 2025 season. Brady wanted to know if Allen noticed anything on film with his scheme, footwork or decision-making. Here's what Allen found, and what we found.
With relatively little to play for in Week 18, the Buffalo Bills knew Josh Allen wasn’t going to spend much time on the field against the New York Jets.
It was just a single snap, in fact – enough to keep his starting streak intact.
With free time for his No. 1 QB, offensive coordinator Joe Brady assigned Allen some homework: Go back and review your 2025 season to this point.
Brady wanted to know whether Allen noticed anything on film with his scheme, footwork or decision-making. He wanted to know what Allen thought worked (and didn’t work) throughout the year.
Allen’s takeaway after his film review?
“You're sitting there like, ‘God, I stink.’ It's like, ‘What am I thinking here? What am I doing?’ ” the quarterback said Wednesday. “The film is never as good, it's never as bad as you think it’s going to be, but going into it and just trusting reads, trusting feet, trusting eyes, trusting my teammates. I think that's what it kind of comes down to.”
As the Bills prepared for their regular-season finale last week, they had their superstar quarterback, Josh Allen, take a deeper look at videotape from his first 16 games.
Derek Gee, Buffalo News
Allen, of course, doesn’t stink. Far from it. But it is also fair to conclude that this season had more potholes than the previous year, when he walked home with the NFL MVP award.
“When you come off the year that he had last year, talking about the reigning MVP in the league, and that’s a near-perfect season. People then think, ‘OK, then he’s got to one-up that,’ ” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “That’s almost impossible to do, the way he played last year, so you don’t want to try and go out and be perfect. That’s not how you really want to perform.
“You want to go out there knowing that there’s going to be some imperfections, and then you adjust and adapt. I really believe he’s led our team in that regard, which is really strong for us.”
Here is a closer look at Allen’s 2025 season, focusing on a few key areas.
Allen took more sacks
By far the biggest statistical regression in Allen’s game came in this category. In 2024, he was sacked just 14 times, the lowest total of his eight-year career. That number ballooned to 40 this season, the most in his career.Allen was blunt in his assessment of that number last week.
“I've taken a lot of unnecessary sacks,” he said. “Opportunities where I can either throw the ball away or get the ball out quicker. I've got to be better in that aspect.”
Houston Texans defensive end Will Anderson Jr. sacks Bills quarterback Josh Allen during their game Nov. 20, 2025, at NRG Stadium in Houston.
Opponents sacked Allen 40 times this season. Joshua Bessex, Buffalo News
That's probably true. But this discussion comes with some nuance, too.
It is no secret that the Bills’ receivers have struggled to gain consistent separation this year, and so, naturally, it’s understandable that Allen would hold the ball a little longer in an effort for someone – anyone – to pop open.
According to analytics website Pro Football Focus, Allen’s average time to throw on all dropbacks was 3.03 seconds, the sixth-longest time in the league.
“There's never one specific reason for why that is,” Brady said of the uptick in sacks. “Some of the best things he does is, he keeps plays alive, and I’m understanding of that. But there's a time and a place to live to another down, and he knows that there's some sacks that he took this year that he obviously wishes he had back.”
Allen’s 40 sacks were sixth-most in the NFL on any quarterback. (His counterpart Sunday, Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence, was sacked 41 times, fifth-most.)
A significant uptick in sacks might suggest a regression by the offensive line, but interestingly enough, the Bills graded out as the best pass-blocking unit in the NFL when averaging composite rankings from ESPN, Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions.
Allen threw more interceptions, but ...
Like sacks, no interceptions are created equal. A Hail Mary at the end of the first half that gets picked counts the same in the box score as a pick-six that loses the game. So does a pass that bounces off a receiver’s hands and into the waiting arms of a defensive player.With that in mind, Allen’s interception total jumped from six to 10. His interceptions came in bunches, with four of them over a three-game stretch from Weeks 4-6 against New Orleans (one), New England (one) and Atlanta (two). He also had six interceptions over a four-game stretch from Weeks 10-13 against Miami (one), Tampa Bay (two), Houston (two) and Pittsburgh (one).
He has not thrown a pick since then.
“I came away (from film review) obviously just like, ‘God, there's so much out there that I've missed,' right?,” Allen said. “Whether it's getting a little lazy with my feet and not taking a checkdown and maybe instead trying to force something downfield. … There's still so much room to improve. I think I just have this extra emphasis on (how) points are at a premium in the playoffs.”
The Jaguars defense ranked second in the NFL with 22 interceptions, so Allen must remember to protect the football against a takeaway-happy team.
“I think there's just that added layer of knowing down and distance and flow of the game and when to take risks, when not to take risks,” Allen said. “Maybe, throughout the regular season, you get into this mode of, ‘We have more games; I can try to squeeze this one in and see how it goes.’ Obviously, in the playoffs, those are premium drives, and you can't really risk too much.”
Allen took fewer shots downfield
For the second straight year, Allen’s total number of pass attempts dropped, this time to 460 – the lowest number of his career, with the exception of his rookie season (320), in which he missed four games because of injury. The eyeball test would suggest Allen threw more short passes, but that’s not exactly true.His number of attempts behind the line of scrimmage was almost exactly the same year-over-year – 95 in 2024 and 94 in 2025.
His short passes, defined as traveling beyond the line of scrimmage, but fewer than 10 yards downfield, were similar, too – 193 last year; 189 this year. His intermediate attempts, 10-19 yards from the line of scrimmage, went up a decent amount, from 78 attempts to 101.
Allen did, however, take significantly fewer deep shots this season – just 53, compared to 74 in 2024.
The Bills' offense definitely lacks a vertical threat, although the midseason addition of Brandin Cooks has produced a couple of targets in that area.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen prepares to fire a deep pass to wide receiver Joshua Palmer against the Ravens on Sept. 7 at Highmark Stadium.
Allen's downfield attempts dropped from 74 last season to 53 this season. Derek Gee, Buffalo News
Among the 21 quarterbacks with at least 378 dropbacks this season, Allen ranked 13th in deep attempts, 12th in completions (23), 14th in yards (663) and tied for 13th in touchdowns (five).
One obvious reason Allen's passing attempts went down in 2025 is the presence of the No. 1 rushing attack in the NFL. There were certain games that running back James Cook simply took over, leading to the question, “Why throw it when you can run it?”
Time will tell whether that approach equates to a championship.
