Josh Allen wasn't asked about Buffalo's new alternate uniforms, though he brought them up anyway, unprompted, at the tail end of his press conference on the first day of training camp.
"Stop hating on the jerseys, guys," Allen said to the Bills press. He likely saw the online backlash like the rest of us.
Two days earlier, the Bills had unveiled the "Nickel City" alternate — an all-gray jersey-and-pants combination with a blue-based helmet carrying the red charge logo — and the internet did what the internet does.
While the reaction was mixed, it was proportionately more critical of the design.
Allen's defense of the look wasn't really about the look itself, but it's symbolism.
"I enjoy them. I think it's very symbolic of what we want to do and what we want to be,"
Allen said after the Bills' first practice. "I understand people want the old jerseys and the old helmets and all that. But at some point, too, we are moving forward. We have to move forward and do something new — and that's what we're doing."
That's the tell. The quarterback used a uniform question to say the thing he's been circling all offseason: the old version of the Buffalo Bills kept coming up short. This version of the team is a new one.
The gray jersey is a visual expression of a much bigger reset. This is the first season in the new $2.1 billion Highmark Stadium. It's the first season under Joe Brady, a first-time head coach who also holds the offensive playcalling duties. It's the first season without Sean McDermott, one of the most successful head coaches in the team's history, fired in January after a run of AFC contention that never produced a Super Bowl appearance.
And the changes started showing up before the pads were on. Practice on Day 1 was held an hour and 15 minutes earlier than it typically ran under McDermott — a small, deliberate scheduling shift that players noticed immediately.
"The vibe, the energy, it's different," Allen added. "I'm not saying it's better [or] it's worse. It's different. And as a new head coach for a team, I think that's a smart decision to make things different."
It's that mindset he and this team will aim to carry with them each time they take the field this season into January and the playoffs.
"This isn't the same place, and you have to make it feel differently because doing the same thing, it obviously didn't work. So, got to change it up and try to find new ways to make it work."
The franchise's best player publicly giving his support of needed changes. Allen is 30. Brandon Beane has spent the offseason dealing to keep their competitive window open.
The Bills changed the head coach, the stadium, the defensive scheme and the jersey because the old ones produced good memories but zero Super Bowl appearances in the Allen era, and the new ones signal a potentially better future.
The alternate is expected to be worn twice this season, though the Bills have not yet announced which games. Teams are required to build alternates from colors already in their palette, which is why gray — long a trim color in Buffalo's scheme — finally got a starring role. It's the first time the franchise has featured it this way.
Regardless of the public response, the aesthetics of this team are downstream of a decision the organization already made and a focus on achieving their ultimate goal of a championship.
Wins in the two games in gray will do much to make it less of a matter of focus, and a Lombardi Trophy would make it an afterthought altogether.
This article originally appeared on Bills Wire: Bills' Josh Allen like the new uniforms: 'Stop hating on the jerseys'
