Josh Allen reveals long-term goal after signing extension with Bills

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen is the reigning NFL regular-season Most Valuable Player who turns 29 years old this coming May, so logic suggests he has plenty of good football ahead of him. 

Nevertheless, he made it known while speaking with reporters Wednesday about putting pen to paper on a historic contract extension that he hopes to ultimately retire a one-club man. 

“I try not to think about the end,” Allen said about his career, as shared by RJ Kraft and Joe Buscaglia of The Athletic. “It’s still a long ways away, but absolutely. I don’t want to play anywhere else. Not too often do players get to stay with one team their entire career. … This is home to me, and it’ll never not be home and I’d love to continue to play here as long as I can. When it’s time to put the cleats up, hopefully it’ll be in Buffalo.”

Allen thus far has played only for the Bills since they made him the seventh overall pick of the 2018 NFL Draft, and he could’ve looked to completely reset the market for players at the position coming off the best season, to date, of his career. 

He and the Bills recently agreed to a six-year, $330M contract extension that included a record $250M in guaranteed money. To compare, Dallas Cowboys starter Dak Prescott inked a four-year extension reportedly worth $240M with $231M guaranteed ahead of the 2024 campaign.

According to the Spotrac website, the average annual value of $55M attached to Allen’s new agreement has him tied for the second-highest in the league with Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals, Jordan Love of the Green Bay Packers and Trevor Lawrence of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Prescott tops the list at $60M per year. 

“I understood the impact of getting an extension done — create some [salary-cap] space,” Allen said about why he seemingly gave the Bills somewhat of a discount. “It’s kind of a weird situation where it’s like, I’ve had a big contract before, and it doesn’t really change how I lived in my life. But I know that again, this opens up some space for cap and signing some free agents.”

It makes sense Allen was more concerned with helping the Bills than with maximizing the value of his agreement. While some view him as the most-gifted overall quarterback in the NFL today, he and Buffalo fell to 0-4 against the Kansas City Chiefs in postseason action via the 32-29 loss to Kansas City in this year’s AFC Championship Game. 

As of Thursday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had the Bills tied for second among the betting favorites at +700 odds to win Super Bowl LX next February. Allen has yet to play beyond a conference title contest during a postseason tournament. 

“That’s really the only thing I’m thinking about, just trying to continue to get better and find a way to bring a Lombardi Trophy to Western New York,” Allen added during his comments, per Alaina Getzenberg of ESPN.