“I think this team is full of guys who are second to me,” Knox said, seeming pleased with the role he has played in the Bills' 3-2 start. “Of course everyone wants to have a lot of catches, but that's not the most important thing. There can be games where I achieve more than 10 goals, but there can also be games where I achieve no goals. I'll make plays when the ball comes to me, but I think it's just about putting the team over myself and right now it's been a lot of work in the run game. I was able to work on the blocking. But you never know. It changes from week to week, so we’ll see.”

The Knox contract appears to be one of Brandon Beane's most questionable decisions. The 2019 third-round pick had flashed in his first three seasons, catching 101 passes for 1,263 yards and 14 touchdowns in 42 games, and he also managed another 18 catches for 177 yards and four touchdowns in six playoff games.

Dawson-Knox Treaty

As the final year of his rookie contract began, Beane decided to give Knox a four-year extension worth up to $52 million, with $31 million guaranteed. It was a big jump, but Knox played well in 2022 with 56 catches for 602 yards and seven touchdowns in the regular season and postseason.

However, Beane then decided to sign Kincaid, and given the Knox contract, that seemed a bit strange. Last year, offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey made a point of getting both players on the field, and through the first five games, the Bills were in two tight end sets on 44.8% of offensive snaps, which was more than their three- Wide deployment at a Back then they still had Stefon Diggs, Gabe Davis, Khalil Shakir, Deonte Harty and Trent Sherfield.

Things changed when Knox suffered a midseason wrist injury and Dorsey was forced to step away from the two-tight end role. Then Dorsey was fired and Joe Brady never really found a way to get Knox involved. While Kincaid set the Bills record for most catches by a tight end (73), Knox only caught nine passes counting the playoffs after returning from his injury.

Nothing has changed heading into 2024, although Kincaid hasn't exactly been a revelation either, and this has affected the Bills' overall passing game, especially in the last two games.

“When we're not producing, I always have to look in the mirror and give a thumbs up, right?” Brady said. “If our guys are playing well and performing, I will praise them, and if they aren’t, it’s on me. You can't give everyone the ball, but I have to make sure we can move the football better.

“A guy like Dawson Knox helps us. And whether it's 12 players, whether it's 11, whoever it is, we have to do what we have to do to stay on the field, stay in manageable first and second downs and not in those to be long third downs. I think that’s been a big difference in the last two weeks.”

Josh Allen says the Bills need to find a way to get Dawson Knox going

Josh Allen would like to involve Dawson Knox more in the passing game

Tight end Dawson Knox has become the invisible man in the Buffalo Bills passing game.

Allen, who has a close relationship with Knox on and off the field, knows that he and Brady will have to find ways to utilize Knox to get the offense going again.

“I know him as a player, as a person, and that pays off on the field, and I have the utmost confidence in him as a player and as a person,” Allen said. “We’re going to find ways to put him in good positions and give him a chance to make some plays for us. And when the opportunities arise, he will make the plays.

“We talk about everyone eating, and it's fine if everyone eats, but sometimes there are people that are left out that you want to continue to include in your offense. And he's one we need to get going. We know that, Joe knows that, I think the whole team knows that. We're better when (Knox) ​​plays well. Again, just find ways to get the guys the ball in open space, and it starts with me.”

But how can Brady and Allen pull this off?

“I think that's a good question, but maybe let's go back to our basics that we did in training camp and just trust in what we call and not try to be in the perfect position so much,” Allen said. “Just trusting in what our guys can do. It's as simple as we want to make it. We have a lot of people with a lot of different skills on this team and we want to utilize everyone's talents. And he’s definitely a talented player that we need to use.”

Knox knows Kincaid is the preferred tight end in the passing game because he has the ability – even if it has been underused – to get downfield and make big plays. He is a great athlete who can catch the ball and run after it.

So Knox will continue to do what's asked of him, especially in the run game, and then hope he can get open when Allen needs to look his way.

“I think the storylines change almost every week, that's just the nature of this business,” Knox said. “Once teams start overreacting and finding too much to go wrong or too much to change in a week, we become distracted from what makes us who we are.

“If we started 0-2 and then won three in a row we would have the same record but we would feel completely different. So we won't overreact. We're not in crisis mode or anything like that. We have a lot of confidence in Joe, our play callers and Josh and we will do everything we can every Sunday to win the game.”

Sal Maiorana has been covering the Buffalo Bills for four decades, including 35 years as a full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books on the team's history. He can be reached at [email protected] and you can follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast