What's different for Josh Allen this year?

[VanS]

 

11 hours ago, bucsfan333 said:

 

What a joke.  I saw Allen make all the throws he's making right now at Wyoming and during his first 2 years in the league.  Rather than admitting they were wrong about him lacking accuracy guys like this would rather say he improved in the one area they claimed beforehand it was impossible to improve in.

The only difference between Allen this year and any other year in the last 4 where we have tape on him is the talent around him has improved.  That's why his numbers have improved.  He always had this ability.  He just wasn't able to show it consistently because the talent around him was always subpar.

 

Edited October 5, 2020 by VanS

[evilflamingo]

4 hours ago, Danand said:

He played football at Wyoming, was considered a big project coming out of college at 21 years old, and he has improved for 3 years as he has gotten more experience and time to work. How is that so difficult to comprehend?

There is a lot of draft bias surrounding Allen. People want him to fail so they can say "see, I was right all along".

Now people try to find some sort of explanation that can be an excuse to why he is becoming a better player.

Him coming into the league so young is certainly worth noting. Compared to someone like Russel Wilson who came into the league at almost 24 (or Brandon Weeden at age 28, lol), Allen was the equivalent of an entire college career younger when he came into the league so he was always going to have to grow into himself. He just grew faster and higher than most expected and hopefully can continue to get even better. Super-impressed by him! 

[VanS]

12 hours ago, Starless said:

A guy doesn't suddenly go from completing <60% of his passes to >70% without doing some retooling. Yes, Diggs has been a big help, but he just looks like a very different player.

For the first time in the last 4 years (2 at Wyoming and 2 at Buffalo) he's not surrounded by absolute trash on the offensive side of the ball.  The players around him can actually play a little now.  Its what has allowed the full spectrum of his talent and ability to show itself.  He's been making throws like this his entire career.  The only difference now is its more consistent because the talent around him are winning their matchups more consistently.

I thought Josh Allen was a star last year.  His numbers didn't reflect it because the talent around him was subpar.  But if you watched him play you saw everything he's doing right now.  And you knew that it was only time before the stat sheet started to reflect the talent he possesed.  

[VanS]

12 hours ago, bigbadbuff said:

Universally agreed upon extremely RAW QB who was thrust into starting because Peterman had a supporting cast of

 

Fat Kelvin Benjamin

Robert Foster

Zay Jones

Charles Clay

LeSean McCoy

bottom 5 offensive line

 

Now has a top 10 WR, an upper echelon #2WR, a top tier slot receiver, a top 10 offensive line, and no turnover in coaching staff outside of QB coach.

This.

The talent around him as a rookie was a joke.  And yet he made that Buffalo team that looked like the worst team in the league at the start of the year look somewhat respectable by the end because of his sheer athleticism.  

Then last year they gave him a #2 WR (Josh Brown) to be his #1 and a slot receiver (Cole Beasley) to be his #2.  All he did was lead them to the playoffs with arguably the weakest set of skill position players of any playoff team.  The offensive line was also not good.

This year the Bills gave him a true #1 WR in Stefon Diggs, a steal of a draft pick in rookie Gabriel Davis, and the offensive line has improved.  Its a culmination of all these factors along with the natural development every QB makes through experience that has led to the explosion we are seeing right now from Josh Allen.

I think people overlook how important the players around you are when it comes to statistics.  They think stats are a reflection of one's talent and ability when in reality they are more a reflection of the talent around you.  Once you improved the talent around Allen this sort of production was inevitable. 

[VanS]

11 hours ago, RandyMossIsBoss said:

There were doubts from pretty much everyone outside of Buffalo including myself whether Allen was gonna be a guy you invest in heading into this season

Nah.  There were plenty of folks outside of Buffalo that believed in him.  The Josh Allen haters were just a lot louder.  Just in the media I know Chris Simms (who I tend to agree with more than others) was always a huge believer in Josh Allen.  He pretty much echoed exactly what I've been saying about him.  Rex Ryan also believed in Josh Allen.  

So while the traditional media trashed Josh Allen, there were a few football guys like Chris Simms and Rex Ryan that were in his corner saying he was SPECIAL. 

[VanS]

6 hours ago, Kirill said:

Remember when I said I'd take Josh Allen over Lamar Jackson and everybody mocked me but then Josh Allen proceeded to have a better playoffs than Lamar, despite it being his first playoffs?

I think I was onto something. Right again. You people really shouldn't take that level of visionary and forward thinking for granted.

Lamar Jackson is also good though.  They are both transcendant talents.  I always felt Allen had the higher ceiling long term.  But Lamar was going to be the more dominant player early on just off the strength of his running ability. 

[VanS]

3 hours ago, NYRaider said:

It's difficult to comprehend because he never completed 60%+ of his passes in a season dating back to college, in his first two seasons he had never thrown for 300+ yards in a game and had only thrown for 3+ TD's in 2 games, not to mention he had 3x more games where he completed 50% or less of his passes (10) then he had games where he completed 70%+ of his passes (3). 

If he continues at his current pace he'll finish with 5,304 yards (+2,215), 48 TD (+28), 70.9 comp% (+12.1%), and a 122.7 passer rating (+37.4). That's probably the biggest jump/improvement we've ever seen from one year to the next in NFL history. 

Exactly.

So we are now left with the simple question: Did he improve this much over one off-season OR was he actually better than the box score metrics suggested the previous 3 years?

I would argue the latter because if you watched him closely the last couple of years, you saw everything he's doing right now.  The only difference is he's doing it more consistently now that the talent around him has improved.

For the first time in his career, Josh Allen isn't walking into games with a severe talent disadvantage alongside him.  That's the reason his numbers have exploded.

[VanS]

1 hour ago, August4th said:

seeing allen improving each year is kinda scary for the rest of the AFC tbh his athletic talent + improving quatrebacking skills = one of hell of a QB

He's hands down the most physically talented QB in the league right now (and arguably the most talented of all-time).  His combination of size, arm talent, and athleticism is pretty unprecedented.  If Buffalo continues to put the right pieces around him, they are set up to be a dominant team for the next decade because of him.

[VanS]

53 minutes ago, raidersedge said:

He really is baby Mahomes.

He's bigger than Mahomes.  He's faster than Mahomes.  And he's got the bigger arm.

Nothing baby about Josh Allen.  The only difference between the two is Mahomes has been surrounded by more talent for a longer period of time.  Put Mahomes on the Bills teams that Allen played on the last couple of years and folks wouldn't be talking about him the way they talk about him right now.

Josh Allen is the most talented QB in the NFL.  We are simply seeing that talent shine now that he has decent players around him. 

[GSUeagles14]

he improved his accuracy and the game has slowed down for him. really as simple as that.

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

Bills fans will need to correct me if I'm wrong, but his accuracy does look a lot improved from last year. One thing the Bills do very well is they give him easy throws to guys in space and allow those guys to go get YAC. It's something KC does with Mahomes, but allowing your QB to make short throws to guys on the move in space makes gets your QB in a rhythm.

It does also help that his WR group routinely makes insane catches for him. Just yesterday on back-to-back plays you had Cole Beasley making a great diving catch and then John Brown on the next play for a touchdown. AND to top it off, his OL is giving him like 8 seconds to throw.

Everything is clicking for that offense right now.

[bigbadbuff]

20 minutes ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

Bills fans will need to correct me if I'm wrong, but his accuracy does look a lot improved from last year. One thing the Bills do very well is they give him easy throws to guys in space and allow those guys to go get YAC. It's something KC does with Mahomes, but allowing your QB to make short throws to guys on the move in space makes gets your QB in a rhythm.

It does also help that his WR group routinely makes insane catches for him. Just yesterday on back-to-back plays you had Cole Beasley making a great diving catch and then John Brown on the next play for a touchdown. AND to top it off, his OL is giving him like 8 seconds to throw.

Everything is clicking for that offense right now.

His deep ball accuracy is insanely better, either that or our receivers sucked at running those routes last year (I think it's a little bit of both). In terms of intermediate passes, he was doing what he's doing now last year as well. 

With an arm like he has the deep ball you could tell was also a confidence thing. You saw it yesterday when Diggs mossed a DB on a 50 yard bomb one on one. He's never had a receiver he trusted to make a play like that before.

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

5 minutes ago, bigbadbuff said:

His deep ball accuracy is insanely better, either that or our receivers sucked at running those routes last year (I think it's a little bit of both). In terms of intermediate passes, he was doing what he's doing now last year as well. 

With an arm like he has the deep ball you could tell was also a confidence thing. You saw it yesterday when Diggs mossed a DB on a 50 yard bomb one on one. He's never had a receiver he trusted to make a play like that before.

Yeah I think he's really learning how to properly use the cannon that's attached to his shoulder at an NFL level. That, and his confidence right now is just through the roof because guys like Diggs, Smokey Brown and Beasley are just making plays left and right for him.

[scar988]

14 hours ago, bigbadbuff said:

Universally agreed upon extremely RAW QB who was thrust into starting because Peterman had a supporting cast of

 

Fat Kelvin Benjamin

Robert Foster

Zay Jones

Charles Clay

LeSean McCoy

bottom 5 offensive line

 

Now has a top 10 WR, an upper echelon #2WR, a top tier slot receiver, a top 10 offensive line, and no turnover in coaching staff outside of QB coach.

Dorsey has been there the last 2 years, though. He's a great QB coach for those Roethlisberger types. He did a good job with Cam Newton, too.

[scar988]

His mechanics have gotten more consistent on the good side than the bad side. The options around him are better. The scheme is tailored more to him and not the other way around. The OL improved as well. When you give a QB with the raw talent he has support, it helps a lot. I'm willing to admit that I was wrong about Josh Allen. I thought he was terribad at Wyoming.