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Troy Aikman makes feelings clear on Josh Allen.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen was crushed at the abrupt conclusion of the 2026 season, breaking into tears after the team’s playoff loss to the Denver Broncos in a moment that prompted owner Terry Pegula to fire the team’s longtime head coach.
Now, Allen could be heading into the 2026 season facing the most pressure of his career, an NFL analyst warns. NFL Network’s Cameron Wolfe suggested that Allen is heading into the most important season so far, facing pressure to finally get his team over the hump and into the Super Bowl.
Allen has fallen just short of the Super Bowl, falling to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship game in 2020 and 2024. Wolfe believes that Allen is facing more and more pressure every season, needing to strike while the team’s Super Bowl window is still open.
“Like Joe Burrow, there’s immense pressure on Josh Allen,” Wolfe said, via SI.com. “He doesn’t want to be the quarterback who couldn’t get it done in Buffalo throughout this reign.”
The Bills had won the AFC East for five straight seasons until last year, when they were surpassed by the New England Patriots and earned the No. 6 seed. But the team has made it beyond the divisional round just two times.
Pegula is feeling the pressure as well, saying he had no plans to fire McDermott until he saw Allen’s despondent demeanor after the playoff loss.
“I looked around, first thing I noticed was our quarterback with his head down, crying,” Pegula said, via The Athletic. “I looked at all the other players. I looked at their faces and our coaches. I walked over to Josh. He didn’t even acknowledge I was there. First thing I said to him, I said, ‘That was a catch.’ ”
Pegula questioned Allen’s overtime interception, saying he believed Brandin Cooks caught the ball, but said McDermott’s firing was bigger than just one play.
“I did not fire coach based on a bad officiating decision,” Pegula said. “If I can take you into that locker room, I felt like we hit the proverbial playoff wall year after year – 13 seconds, missed field goal, the catch. So I just sensed in that locker room, like, ‘Where do we go from here with what we have?’ And that was the basis for my decision.”
Allen is not alone in facing pressure heading into the 2026 season. In fact, Bleacher Report’s Brett Sobleski put more of the onus on the team for failing to surround Allen with enough talent to get over the hump in a competitive AFC.
“Where there’s Josh Allen, there’s a way. The Buffalo Bills lean on that philosophy far too much, though,” Sobleski wrote.
Sobleski gave the Bills credit for trading to acquire DJ Moore, but questioned whether the team still needed more talent on offense.
“To the Bills’ credit, the organization did add DJ Moore via trade with the Chicago Bears. Is Moore’s specific skill set what Buffalo needed at wide receiver? While that can be debated, the 29-year-old veteran will give Allen another viable threat to create after the catch,” Sobleski wrote.
Nathan Dougherty is a sports reporter covering the NFL for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Buffalo Bills, Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins. Previously he wrote for the Rochester Business Journal and served as the assistant editor of athletic trade magazines Coaching Management, Athletic Management and Training & Conditioning. He is based out of Rochester, New York, and loves everything football. More about Nathan Dougherty
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