Orchard Park, N.Y. — When Buffalo Bills tight end Dawson Knox began working out this past offseason, he surely heard some of the noise created by season-ending comments from general manager Brandon Beane.
“At the end of the year (in 2020), Dawson started to get his groove,” Beane said. “But it was never where the opposing defense was like, ‘Man, we’ve got to stop their tight ends from going off.’”
A lot has changed in 10 months.
After just five games this season, Knox leads all tight ends with five touchdown receptions. He’s tied for second among all pass catchers, trailing only Los Angeles Chargers receiver Mike Williams (6). According to Pro Football Reference, Knox has been targeted 24 times and has only dropped one pass. He’s all of a sudden one of Josh Allen’s most trusted targets and has played more snaps than All Pro slot receiver Cole Beasley in Buffalo’s last four games.
Knox did everything he could during the spring and summer months to set himself up for this dramatic jump in his third NFL season. He started out by traveling to California to work 1-on-1 with Allen and then hired a vision specialist coach to work on his hand-eye coordination.
Once the Bills ended OTAs and minicamp, Knox decided to attend Tight End University - a tight end-specific retreat for more than a dozen NFL tight ends to work with veterans Travis Kelce, George Kittle and Greg Olsen. On Sunday Night Football, the Bills blew the doors off the Chiefs in a 38-20 beat down, and the student became the teacher. Well, not quite. But Knox led all receivers in the game with 117 yards and a touchdown, turning in a better stat line than the very person who helped train him at TEU.
Knox has become a matchup nightmare for defenses that have to deal with Stefon Diggs and Emmanuel Sanders as first and second priority. The fear factor has arrived, and Kelce helped unlock this version of Knox this summer.
“(Kelce) probably broke down film for two hours on one route for us,” Knox said last week. “He calls himself the Picasso of routes. It might look like a certain type of route but it’s gonna be a little different. Like Picasso used to draw humans and little things might be different, but it’s still a human. He kind of puts his own twist on stuff.”
Knox said that Kelce emphasized the importance of working on timing with the quarterback. Those repetitions and familiarity have allowed him and Patrick Mahomes to dominate opposing defenses the past few seasons. Knox took that approach with Allen in the summer and the two were able to put little twists on different routes they worked on.
Heading into the season, a certain portion of the fan base seemed to lose patience with Knox. Many of those fans were clamoring for Beane to trade for a big name tight end, most notably Philadelphia’s Zach Ertz. But Beane stood pat and now most of those fans have seemed to change their tune. There’s even a “Dawson Knox apology form” circulating on the Internet.
Knox doesn’t think it’s one thing that clicked that’s allowed him to take his game to the next level. Instead he said it’s just been the combination of his day-by-day mindset, experience, and synergy with Allen and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll.
“I don’t want to ever feel like I’ve come onto my own or feel like I’ve made it,” Knox said. “I feel like as soon as you get to that point in your career where you feel like you’re content or feel like you’ve made it, that’s where you go downhill.”
Daboll said Knox is inside the Bills’ facility all hours of the day and night. So much so that it feels like he’s one of the quarterbacks. Old habits die hard, perhaps, because Knox was a quarterback in high school before changing positions at Ole Miss in college.
After the game, Knox said he got to chat with Kelce for a few moments (you can watch that and more on the Bills’ “Mic’d up video” from last week’s game).
“Obviously Travis is one of the best to ever play the position,” Knox said. “He was like, ‘Keep balling, bro. It’s good to see you out there doing your thing.’ Just classic encouragement. He’s an awesome guy and he’s always been one of my biggest encouragers. We stay in touch in the offseason and during the season, too. I’m gonna keep watching film on him and he’s definitely a good mentor to have.”
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