Buffalo Rumblings
A week after benefiting from Ravens TE Mark Andrews’ dropped catch, Kincaid and the Bills found themselves in a similar place... at the worst moment
Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane spent the better part of 75 minutes providing thoughtful and genuine responses to questions the media had for him following the team’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game.
Beane is almost always candid as he can comfortably be, which allows those listening to get a bit more of a thorough insight to the inner workings of One Bills Drive and on down to the field of play. Among the many topics Beane addressed with those in attendance, perhaps one of the more interesting dealt with tight end Dalton Kincaid.
Providing some background, you may recall that Kincaid’s ill-fated drop ended a would-be scoring opportunity for the Bills just inside the two-minute warning. Now to be fair, Kincaid catching that football doesn’t guarantee victory — perhaps nothing more than a shot to kick for three as a means to tie the game at 32 all.
We’ll never know what happens if Kincaid makes the catch. As a result, there’s been plenty of discussion about why someone with incredible hands and in whom the Bills prioritized in the NFL Draft didn’t come through in the clutch.
As it turns out, Kincaid’s inclusion on the team’s injury reports throughout much of the season may have played a huge role in preventing him from catching Josh Allen’s scramble-drill pass. All told, Kincaid hauled in just two passes (4 targets) for 13 yards against KC.
In the moments following that fateful play, we discovered that Kincaid’s inclusion on the injury reports throughout the season may have played a bigger role in his second campaign with the Bills. Katherine Fitzgerald of The Buffalo News shared that tight end Dawson Knox mentioned Kincaid “playing on a torn PCL in one knee and with an aggravated other knee — with Knox noting how insane it was for Kincaid to play through the pain.
Without a doubt, that helps to paint a more defined picture of Kincaid’s season — not only its regrettably defining moment that was his final target, but also his production overall. In truth, it was perhaps injury that defined Kincaid’s season, rather than one particular, and final, play.
But that play reverberated in everyone’s head. Almost immediately, Josh Allen and the Bills came to Kincaid’s defense, stating that it wasn’t his drop that cost them a win. Predictably, as so many in Bills Mafia have done in the past, donations began to pour in for Dalton Kincaid’s chosen charity, Camp Puzzle Peace.
Alaina Getzenberg, who covers the Bills for ESPN, wrote about the Bills organizationally coming to Kincaid’s defense amid backlash. She also took the opportunity to ask Beane about his thoughts on Kincaid’s sophomore campaign.
Kincaid’s 2024 NFL regular-season stats (courtesy Pro Football Reference):
**Nine starts...
