Four things to watch for in Bills-Jets on Monday night on ESPN and NFL+

• WHERE: MetLife Stadium (East Rutherford, NJ)
• WHEN: 8:15 p.m. ET | ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, NFL+

About a week ago, the biggest Bills vs. Jets storyline began Monday Night Football could have returned to the scene where Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles against Buffalo, ending his first year with New York four games into the 2023 season.

Then Jets owner Woody Johnson walked into Robert Saleh's office Tuesday morning and fired the head coach after 56 games and a 20-36 record, leaving Gang Green to regroup before hosting the AFC East-leading Bills under interim coach Jeff Ulbrich.

However, Buffalo has its own issues to contend with.

After starting the season with three straight wins, including 21 and 37 points, the Bills suffered a similarly overwhelming 35-10 loss to the Baltimore Ravens and let a close 23-20 game slip through their fingers against the Houston Texans .

Both teams are longing for more consistency.

Technically, both teams are where they want to be. Whoever wins on Monday evening will keep the division lead for a third of the season.

Here are four things to watch for when the Bills visit the Jets on Monday night on ESPN NFL+:

1) Josh Allen desperately needs to bounce back. Allen had the makings of a Most Valuable Player candidate before faltering in Week 4 against the Ravens and falling into further disarray in Week 5 against the Texans. After leading the Bills to more than 30 points in each of their first three games, thanks in large part to his nine total touchdowns, Allen led the offense against Baltimore and Houston to just 30 points combined while contributing a single touchdown . His 30% completion rate (on 30 attempts!) in his final game was the lowest of his career, and he has now gone four contests without a rushing score for the first time since Weeks 9-13 of 2021. There's still a silver lining: Allen is still free of interceptions this season after setting a career-high with 18 last year. He hasn't taken as many risks in 2024, but has also reaped few rewards despite his recent struggles. To get back into shape, he will need to both maintain the patience he seems to have developed and rediscover his accuracy against a brutal Jets secondary.

2) Are the Jets seeing a noticeable uptick? You'll be surprised at what introducing a new voice can do. While this is obviously not always the case, especially considering that teams that fire head coaches mid-season typically expect to lose football, the first game under an interim coach tends to result in some kind of bounce-back. Jets fans looking for optimism need look no further than their own quarterback's experience. After Green Bay fired Mike McCarthy following a Week 13 loss in 2018, Aaron Rodgers and the Packers responded the very next Sunday with a 34-20 win over the Atlanta Falcons, the most points they had scored up to that point of the season. It's not out of the question that Rodgers could provide another offensive attack for New York six years later under Jeff Ulbrich. But long term? The story isn't so nice. Only one team in the Super Bowl era – the 2021 Raiders – has ever made the playoffs after replacing a coach midway through the season, and even that was a case of Jon Gruden resigning rather than an admission to obtain. However, the Jets are still full of talent. If they win on Monday, they'll be atop the AFC East and have enough runway to rewrite their history.

3) Buffalo's supporting cast isn't supportive enough yet. Shining the spotlight solely on Josh Allen would ignore some of the Bills' other concerns on offense. Instead of replacing Stefon Diggs with a new star this offseason, Buffalo opted to distribute responsibility more evenly among its playmakers. Khalil Shakir has shown the best connection with Allen. The third-year pro leads the team in receptions (18), receiving yards (230) and shares the lead in receiving touchdowns (two). However, it is questionable whether he will be able to play as he missed two training sessions this week and the previous game due to an ankle injury. Rookie Keon Coleman can provide big plays but no consistency at this stage of his young career. In both games with a touchdown catch, there was only that reception, and in Week 2 it was completely missed. Curtis Samuel was non-existent with a total of 48 receiving yards. Tight end Dalton Kincaid (15 catches for 166 yards and a TD) is underperforming, and while running back James Cook was outstanding with 432 scrimmage yards, it's also questionable whether he'll be able to play while dealing with a toe injury, which may require larger roles Ray Davis and Ty Johnson attack New York's 14th-ranked rushing defense. If the RBs can't find ground, someone has to take action against the Jets' passing D, the second stingiest in the league.

4) Gang Green's offensive restart. Jeff Ulbrich's first major move as interim head coach was to take over offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett's play-calling duties and hand them over to passing game coordinator Todd Downing. Things haven't been right for the most part on that side of the ball, which arguably cost Robert Saleh his job despite being a defensive-minded head coach for a team that ranked fifth in points allowed and second in yards given up through five games documented. Ulbrich demanded games for the D, so the solidarity there will remain. Downing, however, will be tasked with making a splash, both in scoring and overall offense. He didn't produce standout overall results as a Raiders OC in 2017 or as a Titans OC in 2021-22, but Tennessee notably had the fifth-most rushing yards on an NFL-leading 551 attempts in his first season in charge. Perhaps he can ease Aaron Rodgers' resistance in the passing game by unlocking Breece Hall, who has a combined 27 rushing yards in the last two contests and is currently averaging 3.0 yards per carry – 1.8 below his career average through 2024 Buffalo is vulnerable there, allowing 144 yards per game on the ground.