What Role Will Dawson Knox Serve in Bills’ Passing Game?

The league has evolved into a pass happy tempo on the offensive side for quite sometime. While teams’ still like to live by playing smash-mouth defense, the new trend is too have a lethal offense and light up the scoreboard. The Buffalo Bills still live by defensive football, but Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane have recognized that the offense has to produce. The offense ranked 23rd overall and 26th overall in terms of the passing game.

The organization provided Josh Allen with reliable receivers in John Brown and Cole Beasley  going into 2019, but lacked the true deep threat on the outside. That problem has been solved with the acquisition of Stefon Diggs.

With all of the signs and offseason moves pointing towards an upgrade for the Bills’ passing offense, there is still a receiver that has been overlooked this entire offseason due to the success of the Bills’ front organization, tight end Dawson Knox.

The Ole Miss product was taken by the Bills in the third round, 96th overall. In fact, the team even traded up for Knox, so Beane clearly believed that another team was going to grab him at one point. He ended up with 28 catches for 388 yards and two touchdowns in 2019, and showed the violent runs he can pull off against defenders.

With the addition of Diggs, the passing offense is expected to upgrade from last season. Diggs will be the number one, Brown will move to the other side as the number two option and Beasley goes back into his natural spot as the slot receiver. Knox is expected to rotate with Tyler Kroft at the tight end position, but Knox is expected to see more targets. How will Knox fit in this new offense that the Bills have?

 

Second Safety Blanket Option

Allen has a variety of options on the outside and even a reliable running back who can catch passes from the outside or the middle of the field. Beasley will go back into the middle of the field as a slot, and I believe that Allen will target him more than any other receiver on the team. Although, Knox will be able to serve as the second option for the young quarterback in the middle of the field.

The biggest problem that is focused on Knox is his drops. If you watch Knox from 2019, you will see aggressiveness after the catch, but you will also notice that he looks towards the field before he makes the catch and drops the pass.

Knox will not be the main go-to guy and will not be a second option, but do not think that Allen won’t atleast look his way at times. He showed flashes last season, including a great catch and run against the Cincinnati Bengals where he ended up stiff arming one defender then bulldozing another on the same play.

 

Knox is a work in progress but showed more upside rather than bust status. The second year tight end will look to show that he can be the full-time starter in 2020.