Former Bills QB: Buffalo needs to find Josh Allen a star RB

If there’s anyone who understands the pressure of playing quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, it’s former quarterback Jim Kelly.

Speaking at a charity event in Rochester, N.Y., on Thursday, Kelly had a simple, yet direct message to Bills general manager Brandon Beane: give QB Josh Allen some help.

“Josh can’t do everything by himself,” Kelly said, via News 10’s Jackson Roberts. “I hope they find a way to add a star running back. …When you’ve got a guy as good as Josh Allen, you tend to probably get a little greedy and you want to use him more than you probably should, but (offensive coordinator) Ken Dorsey is doing a great job. And Josh, I just hope that I would get that running game going to take some of the pressure off him.”

Kelly knows exactly the kind of impact a thriving run game can have. In the 44 games he played without a 1,000-yard running back, Kelly had a 22-22 record. In the 116 games he had Thurman Thomas, who rushed for seven straight 1,000-yard seasons with Kelly under center, he had a 79-37 record with two All-Pro and three Pro Bowl selections.

Allen hasn’t had a 1,000-yard rusher in any of his five seasons, and he’s been Buffalo’s second-leading rusher each of the last two years. Devin Singletary had a team-high 819 yards in 2022 but he signed a free-agent deal with the Houston Texans.

The Bills have four running backs under contract in 2023—James Cook, Damien Harris, Nyheim Hines and Taiwan Jones. Cook rushed for 502 yards during his rookie season and Harris had just 462 yards for the Patriots in 2022, though he nearly eclipsed 1,000 yards in 2021 (929).

The top remaining free-agent running backs include Ezekiel Elliott, Leonard Fournette and Kareem Hunt. Buffalo has also been linked to the University of Texas running back Bijan Robinson in several mock drafts.