Josh Allen Opens Up on Bills’ Playoff Heartbreaks: ‘You Knock Enough at the Door’
Josh Allen isn’t pretending the losses didn’t happen. In a joint appearance with new Bills head coach Joe Brady on Kevin Clark’s This Is Football podcast this week, Allen addressed Buffalo’s run of playoff disappointments head-on — including last season’s gutting overtime loss to the Denver Broncos.
The Bills have made the playoffs in bunches under Allen, reaching the divisional round six times and the AFC Championship twice. A Super Bowl trip has never followed. Last postseason, Buffalo fell 33-30 in overtime to Denver in the divisional round, with Allen coughing up a costly fumble late in the first half that swung momentum in the Broncos’ favor.
Clark asked Allen directly how he processes a loss like that one now, months removed from it. Allen initially joked, “Next question,” before getting into it for real, according to NBC Sports.
“No, definitely we’ve watched it. We’ve put it in the past,” Allen said. “We’ve learned from it. It’s been in the playoffs a lot of times in the last however many years I’ve been here now, and we’re just continuing to find ways to learn from it. I think that’s a hard pill to swallow sometimes because we haven’t gotten it done, but you knock enough at the door, it’s going to open at some point. That’s just what we have to keep doing: keep knocking on that door and giving ourselves chances to be in that situation again.”
Clark posted a clip of the exchange on X, capturing the exact moment Allen delivered the line that’s since made the rounds across NFL media:
Kevin Clark posted on X: “I asked Josh Allen how he processes last year’s playoff loss now… If you knock enough on the door it’s going to open at some point.” —
I asked Josh Allen how he processes last year's playoff loss now.
"Next question." (He was joking)
"If you knock enough on the door it's going to open at some point. What we have to keep doing is keep knocking…and give ourselves chances to be in that position again." https://t.co/Wbi9CEa1It pic.twitter.com/GYmjgLzhOv
— Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) August 4, 2026
The quote landed differently with different corners of the fan base. Some Bills fans took it as the steady, been-here-before resolve of a quarterback who has carried this franchise back to the postseason year after year. Others weren’t as forgiving. Sportskeeda noted that a segment of fans pushed back on the “keep knocking” framing, invoking Bills legends Jim Kelly and Dan Marino — two Hall of Fame quarterbacks who never won a Super Bowl despite deep playoff runs of their own.
A New Voice Calling the Shots
Allen wasn’t alone on the podcast. He sat alongside Joe Brady, promoted to head coach this offseason after two seasons as Buffalo’s offensive coordinator. It’s Brady’s first head-coaching job at any level, and Allen used the conversation to describe what’s changed in the building with him running the show.
Allen pointed to something small but telling: Brady’s habit of getting fired up over defensive plays, even though his background is entirely offensive.
“He’s showing excitement when the defense makes plays, which you have to do with that coach. And it’s like, ‘What the heck’s going on here? Why are you cheering that?’ And I think that he’s an offensive guy at heart, and defensive coaches are gonna cheer on their defense a little bit more. But I do still think that it’s his offense. So he wants his offense to be as successful as possible, no matter who we’re playing against.”
That’s a notable shift for a franchise that spent the better part of a decade under Sean McDermott, a defense-first head coach. Brady climbed the ladder in Buffalo as quarterbacks coach and then offensive coordinator before getting the top job, and he’s kept offensive play-calling duties for himself heading into 2026, according to Spectrum News. He also brought in Jim Leonhard as defensive coordinator, a separate change on that side of the ball.
The building has noticed a different feel this offseason. Running back James Cook, in a separate interview with NFL Network’s Good Morning Football, described a “new energy” under Brady, according to ClutchPoints. Cook, who led the NFL in rushing yards last season, said a young, first-time head coach naturally brings a different energy than a veteran staff.
What It Means Heading Into 2026
None of this changes what Buffalo still has to prove. Allen is entering his ninth season without a Super Bowl trip to show for it, and the Bills open a new era in a brand-new stadium this fall with a first-time head coach calling the plays. The Chiefs have eliminated Buffalo in the playoffs four times during Allen’s tenure, and last year it was Denver’s turn to end the run.
Brady inherits an offense that has been productive for years under his own play-calling and a defense that’s been retooled under Leonhard after struggling in some of those exact playoff losses Allen referenced. Whether the “energy” Cook and Allen are describing translates into a deeper playoff run is the question training camp and the regular season will start answering.
