Dalton Kincaid named ‘X-Factor’ for Buffalo Bills offense in 2024

Dalton Kincaid named ‘X-Factor’ for Buffalo Bills offense in 2024

The 2024 NFL season has officially begun and it’s shaping up to be a big one for the Buffalo Bills.

It will take a complete team effort in all three phases to continue to compete without losing, despite the many changes in the squad in key positions with new and younger talent on board.

Still, an impact player can have a special impact on his or her unit, and ESPN has revealed who those players could be for each team with their NFL X-Factors for the 2024 Season: Key Players for All 32 Teams list.

The outlet selected receiving tight end Dalton Kincaid for Buffalo.

Here’s what ESPN’s Ben Solak had to say about Kincaid as X Factor:

Two hundred and forty-one targets: That’s how many opportunities remain now that both Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis have left Buffalo this offseason. The Bills have opted for a committee approach at wide receiver, which I like, but who does Josh Allen turn to on third-and-6 of his many options? Who does offensive coordinator Joe Brady design the “gotta have it” play for?

That player could be Kincaid, whom the Bills drafted with the intention of becoming an offense that can run through an elite pass-catching tight end. He was an efficient, high-volume target last season — his 73 catches were the third-most for a rookie tight end since 1970 — but that comfortable undergig only worked when Diggs and Davis pushed the defense downfield. If Buffalo’s offense wants to thrive with this new look, Kincaid needs to be used downfield more often — or develop a George Kittle-esque profile after the catch.

The former is far more likely, and the good news is this: Kincaid catches everything. His 77.7 reception percentage is astounding, even on the easy targets he’s been given. As his trust in Allen grows, expect him to lead the Bills in targets in more games than he doesn’t, and look for Brady to scheme around Kincaid’s versatility in formation and routes to open up other players as well. He’s the linchpin of this passing attack.

Kincaid, the Bills’ 2023 first-round pick, excelled in his first year in Buffalo, setting rookie records and making a consistent impact on offense.

The Bills certainly hope he can build on such a strong debut season and take on some of the workload left by the departures of Diggs and Davis.

They’ll need him to continue playing the versatile, steady target role he increasingly assumed last season, including the Diggs plays and looks he gradually adopted as the 2023 season progressed.

At 24 years old, Kincaid has already seen a successful sample size share of the Buffalo offense in his first season with the Bills. With his elite hands and positional versatility, he’ll likely see more opportunities to improve upon that impressive rookie campaign with the Diggs/Davis workload having to be spread among reliable targets.