Ever since the acquisition of running back LeSean McCoy in a trade for linebacker Kiko Alonso, the 28-year-old has been running wild for the Buffalo Bills offense.

Despite being used in a running back by committee, being paired in each of his first two years in Buffalo with Karlos Williams and Mike Gillislee, McCoy still managed to prove age is nothing but a number. He’s continuing to rack up high yardage totals, especially last season when he gained 1,267 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns.

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Although McCoy has seen fantastic success running the ball, the lack of a passing game has hindered not only McCoy but Buffalo’s offense as a whole. Through two years in Western New York, McCoy has accumulated just 628 receiving yards after racking up over 2,000 in his six seasons in Philadelphia.

To put that number in perspective, Arizona Cardinals running back David Johnson had 879 receiving yards last season alone.

While that may seem like a lot for Johnson or a fluke, it’s not. Le’Veon Bell of the Pittsburgh Steelers had 616 receiving yards last season. Clearly, McCoy is lagging behind other top running backs in the league when it comes to getting passes, especially in today’s modern NFL that emphasizes the quick passing game and getting the ball out to offensive playmakers in space where they can create additional yards after the catch.

The involvement of running backs in the passing game has evaded Buffalo in recent years. The last running back to make a real impact receiving was Fred Jackson in 2014. His 501 yards receiving that year landed him third best of running backs in the NFL. Before and after that year, the production has been incredibly limited for Bills running backs.

But why? LeSean McCoy with the Eagles stayed pace with the rest of the running backs in the league. He had over 500 yards receiving in two separate years in Philadelphia.

The answer lies in coaching and a change in offensive coordinator for Buffalo, which should revitalize LeSean McCoy in the receiving game. This week McCoy stated:

[Rick Dennison] he’s big on that, you look at all the successful running backs that’s been in his offense, from Arian Foster who I’m a big fan of, he did it on the ground and in the air.

McCoy is right to be a fan of Rick Dennison and so should Bills fans. In the past two seasons, Buffalo was dead set on running the ball. This may have helped rack up the rushing statistics, but the Bills’ opponents noticed. They were able to better predict and read when Buffalo was going to run rather than pass.

With new offensive coordinator Rick Dennison calling the shots, the old ways will change.

Everything looks the same, actually talking to Sean about why he hired [Rick Dennison], the biggest thing is – he said that it’s harder to defend because everything looks the same, as a defense, they look for alignments, they look for different cheats, different formations, and everything looks the same in our offense and it’s hard, if it’s a pass or run, you can’t tell.

Incorporating McCoy in the passing game can also help alleviate pressure off of receivers and give Buffalo another talented option. McCoy is already predicting what could happen if he gets a pass.

Being a part of that, is special to me because you don’t know what it is, and then the ability to get the ball to you running backs in open field with routes against linebackers, it’s an easy win.

Running backs in the passing game are vital to any productive NFL offense and a major key to keeping the defense guessing. Under Rex Ryan’s staff, the involvement of running backs in the passing game was all but gone, and opposing defenses were able to easily read play calls. This made life difficult for Tyrod Taylor and the rest of the Bills’ offense.

With the talent LeSean McCoy has and his ability to weave and make people miss, Bills fans should be excited to watch the new offense perform this fall. Just don’t expect to know which play is coming next.