Bills' Josh Allen Talks Madden 24 Cover, DeAndre Hopkins and More in B/R Interview

Perhaps no team in the NFL will be under as much pressure as the Buffalo Bills this season. Josh Allen looks the part of the quarterback to deliver the franchise its first Lombardi Trophy.

While the No. 7 pick of the 2018 draft was inconsistent at first, he quickly turned the corner into one of the league's best players by his third season and is coming off three straight years with more than 4,200 passing yards and at least 35 touchdown passes.

Throw in his ability to make plays with his legs and hit any pass with his strong arm, and the 27-year-old is the complete package at the position.

It is no wonder, then, that EA Sports Madden NFL 24 tabbed him as this year's cover star.

"I was extremely excited," Allen told Bleacher Report when asked about his initial reaction to the cover. "A little bit shocked. It's such a surreal feeling. I don't really know how to describe it. There's only been X amount of guys who have ever graced the cover of Madden, and to be one of them and be in this small fraternity—especially the year after John Madden himself was on the cover—it's a huge honor.

"It's a dream come true. As a kid playing Madden, learning all the rules and really learning football from it and having the memories of playing with my dad and brother as a young kid, it's such a dream come true."

This year's game, which launches Aug. 18, will feature the return of Superstar Mode and Mini-Games, giving players a refreshed look at old favorites.

Players can progress through NFL Scouting Combine mini-games such as bench press, 40-yard dash and position-specific drills in the Superstar Mode as they attempt to build their overall rating to a 99 and achieve NFL greatness.

That is a journey Allen himself is taking, although it doesn't seem like being the game's cover star lends him any say in whether he will join the coveted 99 Club.

"That's not up for me to decide, but I will say this," he said. "I started as a 74, I think, my first two years. Then a 77, then an 88 and then a 92 last year. Just gotta keep going and keep climbing."

A higher rating will surely be in store for him in this year's game, which will also feature more control on both sides of the ball with its FieldSENSE gameplay system and foundational football enhancements. The result will be smoother gameplay and more realistic player reactions to different scenarios, which could help the Bills at their next meeting.

"There's actually some really good players on our squad," Allen said. "A.J. Epenesa is pretty dang good. Greg Rousseau is a fantastic player. Coach [Sean] McDermott sometimes during meetings in the offseason will make a competition Friday with two guys on Madden playing against each other in front of the whole team. I got picked once, and I won. You get one drive against a defensive guy, and it's usually a two-minute situation."

So who would Allen choose in Madden if he wasn't allowed to control Buffalo in such a situation?

"I think the mobile quarterbacks in this game are very powerful," he said. "Lamar [Jackson] would be up there. Obviously, using Pat [Mahomes] would be up there. And then a wild card, going with the San Francisco 49ers and utilizing the fullback dive with Kyle Juszczyk."

Historically, the Bills are a franchise that is known for its narrow championship misses and is coming off a series of gut-wrenching postseason losses in recent years despite having one of the best quarterbacks in the league. That the Kansas City Chiefs—who also have one of those elite, franchise-altering signal-callers—have won two of the last four Lombardi Trophies only magnifies the playoff disappointment.

That would seemingly set the stage for a Super-Bowl-or-bust type of campaign with an increased level of urgency that puts everything under a microscope, but Allen believes that's business as usual for the modern-day Bills.

"I feel like every year for us is Super Bowl-or-bust," Allen said. "If we don't win the whole thing, something went wrong and we have to fix it. There's 31 unhappy teams at the end of the year, and there's only one winner. It's hard to win in this league, especially when you bring in all the variables and factors that can go wrong during the season. But at the end of the day, you either get the job done or you don't. And we're trying to find a way to get the job done."

They have gotten the job done in the regular season, making four straight playoff appearances with Allen under center.

However, they have not gotten out of the AFC during that stretch, which includes the sting of a 42-36 overtime loss to the Chiefs in the divisional round to end their 2021 season the year after losing to the same team in the AFC Championship Game. That overtime defeat happened after Patrick Mahomes orchestrated a 13-second drive to force the extra period, driving home just how close Buffalo was to the NFL's gold standard.

The best offense to choose in this year's Madden game might not be decided until DeAndre Hopkins picks a team.

Where the wide receiver will end up after the Arizona Cardinals released him is one of the biggest remaining offseason storylines, and he has been connected to the Bills multiple times. About the only thing missing from the five-time Pro Bowler's and three-time First Team All-Pro's resume is a championship, and that would be well within his reach in Buffalo.

After all, opposing defenses couldn't afford to double both Hopkins and Stefon Diggs all while accounting for tight ends Dawson Knox and Dalton Kincaid underneath, Allen taking off as a runner and Gabe Davis coming off a breakout season.

However, Tim Graham of The Athletic cited three executives from around the league who called a Bills signing of Hopkins unlikely because they don't have enough salary-cap room.

"We'd love to have him," Allen said. "I'm not sure exactly what's going to happen with him, we'll let the pieces fall where they may. He's a heck of a player, a heck of a talent, I'd love to be able to throw the ball to him. At the end of the day, I understand it's a business and there's a lot of business sides to the game."

The Bills could use him against a 2023 schedule that appears to be one of the league's most challenging.

Name an AFC contender, and they are likely on it. Buffalo faces Mahomes' Chiefs, Joe Burrow's Cincinnati Bengals, Justin Herbert's Los Angeles Chargers and Trevor Lawrence's Jacksonville Jaguars outside of their own AFC East division that features a Miami Dolphins team coming off a playoff appearance and a rejuvenated New York Jets squad that added future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers.

Even the supposed lighter games come against Russell Wilson trying to bounce back with new head coach Sean Payton on the Denver Broncos and a Las Vegas Raiders team with Davante Adams.

That's not even mentioning cross-conference matchups against three NFC teams that made the playoffs in the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants and Super Bowl representative Philadelphia Eagles.

Yet Allen isn't looking ahead.

"The first one," he said when discussing whether he has any of those games circled. "The most important one. I think every year, it's hard to win in this league. Everybody is getting paid. With that being said, every team is going to have a lot of talent on their squad. The game's not played on paper, you go out there and work for it and have to earn it. I think that's what we're doing right now as a team. We're earning our rights to go win football games."

That first one just so happens to come against Rodgers and the Jets on Monday Night Football, which will be quite the early measuring-stick contest for a team and quarterback that will only see success as lifting the Lombardi Trophy.