Lakers’ LeBron James Curious About Bills QB Josh Allen’s Audible with His Name

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Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen barked out a “LeBron James” audible during Sunday’s matchup with the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.

And that caught the attention, and curiosity, of the Los Angeles Lakers superstar, who described himself as a “football junkie” earlier in the week:

James also picked the Bills to beat the Jaguars on Sunday morning. It was a logical selection—the Bills came into Sunday with a 3-1 record, fresh off a 48-20 blowout win over the dangerous Miami Dolphins, behind the electrifying duo of Allen and wideout Stefon Diggs.

The Jags, meanwhile, were 2-2 on the season. They did have the advantage of staying in London after beating the Atlanta Falcons across the pond last Sunday, while the Bills made the transatlantic flight this week.

As for Allen’s “LeBron James” audible, those are nothing new in the sport. Peyton Manning’s “Omaha” audible became so ubiquitous he eventually named his post-career production company, Omaha Productions, after it.

Jared Goff has busted out audibles such as Elvis, Tupac, Obama and Ric Flair in his career.

“A lot of those words are from the players, from the coaching staff,” Goff’s former head coach Sean McVay told reporters back in 2017 regarding the unique audibles. “There’s a lot of people that are involved that I think you try to have fun with some of those code words and the communication. I think Jared’s done an excellent job with that and some of them mean something, some of them don’t. Guys have fun with it.”

It’s possible that Allen’s “LeBron James” command wasn’t an audible at all, but rather a dummy cadence meant to fool the defense into thinking he was changing the play.

“I remember the whole ‘Omaha’ thing with Peyton. (At first), that wasn’t a real call. It was a dummy check. But then he would get into calling the real play,” former defensive end Jabaal Sheard told Stephen Holder of The Athletic in 2018. “But it took people until the playoffs to really know that. He was fooling guys with it the whole season. And then throughout the year, teams change their words, too.”

So the “LeBron James” call could have meant anything. Or, alternatively, nothing at all.