ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Terry Pegula made a joke.
Smack dab between the start of free agency and the NFL Draft, the Buffalo Bills owner spoke at Highmark Stadium’s topping-out ceremony. This event commemorates the installation of the final piece of structural steel on a big construction project.
Pegula approached the lectern after a recitation of his accomplishments, punctuated by drafting the NFL’s newest MVP, quarterback Josh Allen.
“I should congratulate Josh,” said the multibillionaire, who a month earlier signed off on Allen’s six-year, $330 million contract that includes $250 million in guarantees. “He now makes more money than I do.”
The crowd erupted in prolonged laughter. After Pegula unfolded the speech he’d pulled from his suitcoat pocket, he paused and quizzically studied the reaction from so many politicians, business leaders, dignitaries, Bills employees and ironworkers.
“Was that that funny?” Pegula asked.
Allen is serious business, arguably more important to Buffalo’s hopes than the $2.2 billion colossus rising into Orchard Park’s skies.
As the Bills have built their new home, Allen has become their monolith.
Allen stands so tall and so alone that he is, at the very least, the most powerful person in the Bills organization not named Pegula — and he might possess more leverage around Western New York than ownership.
“Nothing or anyone,” said five-time Super Bowl-winning executive Carmen Policy, “is more important to the Buffalo Bills than Josh Allen.”
Sunday night’s season-opening matchup with the Baltimore Ravens in old Highmark Stadium is an immediate reminder of Allen’s singularity. He was voted MVP over first-team All-Pro quarterback Lamar Jackson in large part because of what Allen accomplished without as many starmates.
Four other Ravens offensive players were voted onto the initial Pro Bowl roster, including running back Derrick Henry and receiver Zay Flowers. Allen and left tackle Dion Dawkins were the lone Bills until running back James Cook and center Connor McGovern were added as replacements.
Jackson had superior stats, but Allen’s MVP case was underscored by all the Bills’ questions that roiled last September.
The football world wondered how Allen could succeed with such a short-handed team. Top receivers Stefon Diggs and Gabriel Davis and center/captain Mitch Morse were gone. Supposed top target Dalton Kincaid and touted rookie wideout Keon Coleman proved disappointing.
Allen dominated anyway, posting a career-high QBR. Buffalo never clinched the AFC East so quickly.
Still, the Bills failed to reach the Super Bowl again. They were beaten by the Kansas City Chiefs again. Another season of Allen’s prime tolled again.
Allen is 29, young for a quarterback in an era when the NFL protects them from being manhandled by ruffians. Then again, Allen wants to run like Larry Csonka as much as throw from the pocket. Who’s to say how long he will remain an elite force playing that way?
However, MVP quarterbacks play in Super Bowls. Allen and Jackson, a two-time honoree, are the only ones not to have reached the championship game since Brian Sipe won in 1980 and left the Cleveland Browns for the USFL four years later.
When you explore the list of Hall of Fame quarterbacks — and Allen is well down the path to Canton already — you notice almost all of them had Hall of Fame help in attaining glory.
“The sad part,” Policy said, “is that if you’re an organization that’s really, really, really trying to put together a run to the Super Bowl — and maybe more than one Super Bowl — you don’t want your guy winning the MVP because he’s doing it all on his own and carrying it all. He needs some help!”
Policy knows Hall of Fame talent intimately. He was an influential San Francisco 49ers executive when Joe Montana won four Lombardi Trophies and Steve Young won another. Bill Walsh coached Montana’s first three, and all-time receiving king Jerry Rice bridged both quarterbacks. Running backs Roger Craig (two-time Hall of Fame finalist) and Ricky Watters are considered strong candidates to get in eventually. The Niners fielded several more Hall of Famers on defense.
There was a time the strength of an offense commonly was based on the strength of its “triplets,” the quarterback, running back and top target. Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin popularized the term in the 1990s. John Elway, rated by some experts as the greatest quarterback of the 20th century, didn’t win a Super Bowl until he had tailback Terrell Davis and tight end Shannon Sharpe. Kurt Warner will have quarterbacked two sets of Hall of Fame triplets once Larry Fitzgerald gets a bronze bust.
Some teams boasted quadruplets; the Bills’ K-Gun offense thrived with Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed and James Lofton.
Allen doesn’t have a twin.
“Although it highlights the unique fire inside this athlete and his unique talents and unbelievable sense of drive and discipline,” Policy said, “what it does is it wears you down mentally and physically.”
Yes, running back James Cook scored 18 touchdowns last season, but he also played less than 50 percent of the offensive snaps. As the drama — by Bills’ standards — percolated last month around Cook’s contract dispute, many fans were content to say goodbye and let Ray Davis, Ty Johnson and Frank Gore Jr. tote the load. General manager Brandon Beane sure wasn’t eager to appease Cook.
That attitude toward Cook’s potential absence doesn’t reflect an indispensable player.
Bookmakers don’t see much Bills twining either. BetOnline this week posted odds on AFC East players most likely to lead the NFL in various stats. Allen is 7-to-1 to win MVP and 14-to-1 to run for the most TDs. Cook is 80-to-1 to win the rushing crown and 33-to-1 to lead the league in rushing TDs. No Bills wideout or tight end is listed as a possibility to lead the NFL in receptions, yards or TDs.
The Miami Dolphins and New York Jets have at least one candidate listed for every offensive stat.
Should Allen have been truly assisted by at least one future Hall of Famer by now? The Bills have had just four first-team All-Pros since Allen arrived: Diggs, linebacker Matt Milano, cornerback Tre’Davious White and safety Jordan Poyer — one season apiece.
“You want more refinement in the offense so that you’re not totally relying on him, not totally beating him up and making him do the things he must to get the job done,” said Policy, the Browns’ part-owner, president and CEO when the team relaunched in 1998.
“Give him some additional weapons. It would be nice to have triplets out there. Expand the family! That will allow him to be the elite, world-class athlete he is without having to be Superman every game.”
Only three inducted quarterbacks from the Super Bowl era didn’t enjoy significant contributions from at least one Hall of Fame running back, receiver or tight end: Len Dawson, Fran Tarkenton and Dan Marino.
Only three don’t have a Hall of Fame coach with them in Canton: Warren Moon, Elway and Brett Favre, although the latter two could be joined someday by Mike Shanahan and Mike Holmgren, respectively.
Hall of Fame résumés, of course, are impacted tremendously by Super Bowl appearances. The big stage forges stars faster than a horde of ironworkers, and cement legacies faster than a team of masons.
Allen is the rock upon which the whole team is built. Unless more pillars materialize, he’ll have to bear essentially the entire weight of the Super Bowl dream.
“I just really want to see Josh Allen go to the next level,” Policy said. “I just hate to see these great athletes not get there.
“So get him some help because I really do believe he’d know how to use it. I think he’s a pretty darn good guy, who doesn’t strike me as selfish, that if he had the talent there, he would want to share in it. And if that’s correct, then come on. There’s no stopping you then.”
(Top photo of Josh Allen: Geoff Stellfox / Getty Images)