Josh Allen hasn't felt a tap on his leg in the huddle this year.
He hasn't felt ire on the sideline.
He hasn't had to worry about making sure he got the ball into any one set of hands, and it's no coincidence the Bills quarterback is playing the best football of his life.
"When people know their assignment and go out and execute and don't care about when they get the ball, they just know they will get the ball at some point," Allen said. "It makes playing with these guys extremely awesome."
The Bills remade their wide receiver room before the season, bidding adieu to their two biggest names and Allen's two top targets: Stefon Diggs in a trade and Gabe Davis to free agency. Diggs and Davis had combined for a third of Allen's completions, almost half of his yards and half of his touchdowns in 2023. But in rolling with Khalil Shakir (who'd accounted for three scores in his first two seasons), Mack Hollins (who had topped only 300 yards once in his seven-year career) and rookie Keon Coleman, Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane made a concerted decision that flash was overrated.
"We felt like our best plan of attack to help Josh the most was to find a variety of skillsets in the passing game to help us have as many answers as possible for the variety of defenses that are thrown at him," Beane said.
More bluntly, offensive coordinator Joe Brady said: "We wanted a room of selfless guys."
No one in this pass-catching group, which also includes tight ends Dalton Kincaid and Dawson Knox, and receivers Curtis Samuel and Amari Cooper, aggressively demands the ball from Allen in the huddle. No one harangues him for more touches, and no one hangs his head if the ball goes someone else's way.
Shakir (76 catches for 821 yards and four touchdowns) and Hollins (31 catches for 378 yards and five touchdowns) relish blocking. (Hollins famously despises shoes and has been nicknamed "Tarzan"; of course he doesn't mind digging out a safety.) Coleman (29 catches for 556 yards and four touchdowns) is learning from everything they do. But it's so much more than willingly doing the less glamorous work.
Brady -- a hot head-caching candidate right now -- is an outstanding communicator and patient explainer, and Allen said one of the things he's appreciated the most about this offense is how the receivers have been taught to work with him through his progressions.
"When you're three or four in the progression, we don't want you to win early. If you win early, you're probably covered late. This is the NFL -- windows close extremely fast," Allen said. "They all want the ball -- they're receivers. They want to score, they want to catch, but they know that, 'If I do the little things right, if I run the for-the-love-of-the-game route, the next time I get called for a pass, someone else will run the for-the-love-of-the-game route because I just did it for them.' It's just a bunch of guys playing for each other."
It's a mutual trust for sure: trust in Allen and Brady that they really mean it when they say "everybody eats." And trust from Allen in his receivers that they'll be where they're supposed to be, that they're fully bought in and that Allen, as Brady said, "doesn't have to force every ball." That Allen's turnovers are a career-low is no surprise.
"Trusting guys around him is helping his decision-making," Brady said. "He doesn't feel he has to get the ball to anyone."
Even when Beane traded for a bona fide No. 1 wide receiver in Cooper this past October, he purposely chose a pass-catcher with zero diva traits, a man who is an elite route runner, but who is also soft-spoken and the consummate professional. He had no catches in the Bills' decisive win over the Lions, and yet Brady remembers Cooper smiling in the postgame locker room just as broadly as if he'd had three touchdowns.
"Amari makes so many plays without making plays," Brady said. "He's going to help us get to where we ultimately want to get to. They all are."
This is not in any way to diminish how Allen -- as he has every single offseason -- dedicated himself in this offseason to improving a piece of his game. His footwork is markedly better, and he is just as accurate rolling to the left as he is to the right. He's strived to improve on every single limitation, and Brady said he's never been around a player who so committedly, and at times so quickly, can make a change.
"I'll tell him, 'Hey, do you see how you dropped your elbow on this throw,' in between a drive and he can change it on the fly," Brady said.
Head coach Sean McDermott said even more than the physical growth this past year, he focused on the leadership with Allen, on what it truly means to be the face of the Bills.
"When you're the face of the franchise, much is given, much is expected and much is required," McDermott said.
It's all connected, of course. Allen said he thinks McDermott is more relaxed and looser than at any other point in their six years together. McDermott said that's because of who Allen has become, the place Allen is in his life, and how "in lockstep" he feels with his quarterback. Allen said that's because of how unfettered he feels playing when it's just about playing.
These Bills are too classy and too well-trained to ever take a dig at former players. They simply made a decision to go in a different direction that better espoused their collective personality. And so here they are, entering the playoffs with the most multi-faceted offense they've had in the Allen era.
"It's a credit to Josh and each of the receivers for the success we had during the regular season," Beane said.
Thirteen players catching touchdowns this season matches an NFL record. It's the fruition of that "everybody eats" mantra, coined by Brady back in May when the doubts about this superstar-less receiving corps were in full swing. Last Sunday, in Foxboro, Massachusetts, Knox talked pregame about how much the Bills wanted to get that record-breaking 14th player a touchdown catch.
"It's (fullback) Reggie Gilliam's turn," Knox said. "We have to get it to him."
Alas, on a day during which Allen kept his consecutive start streak alive, edge rusher Von Miller got a $1.5 million bonus with a sack and running back James Cook tied the franchise record for rushing touchdowns in a season, McDermott couldn't make that touchdown happen for Gilliam and his offense. Getting out healthy was the priority.
But no one needs a record to see the magic in what Beane and McDermott gave Allen with this receiver room.
McDermott, Brady, Beane -- they've all uniformly advocated in every way they can for Allen to be voted this year's Most Valuable Player. But when Beane heard the now common refrain that Allen is doing "more with less" than the Ravens' Lamar Jackson, he bristled.
Because while these Bills may not have the big-name receiver with the gaudy stats, they don't think they have less. These Bills believe, without a big-name receiver, they actually have more.