jrober38

You're right. They're not the same thing. In fact, I don't know when I said they were. All I said is that QBs who couldn't complete more than 57% of their throws in college have no history of making successful NFL QBs (over the last 20 years).

Guys who had accuracy issues coming out of college. Particularly guys who didn't complete fewer than 57% of the throws they attempted at the collegiate level. There's the context.

You're reading comprehension skills are obviously quite poor. I didn't say it never helps. I said it's rarely helped, as in a small percentage of the time it has helped. If you're going to bother saving posts I made 7 months back, try reading them before posting them.

Nothing you've dug up that I said is wrong. Guys like Allen practically never work out. Some guys who sat on the bench for a year or more did work out. The number of guys who sat and were successful is greater than the number of guys who completed less than 57% of their passes in college. Maybe sitting will help. History clearly shows playing guys like him immediately will end in disaster.

You're right. Might as well throw him to the wolves. We'll be looking for a new QB in 3 years anyway.

Again, feel free to talk to me in 3 years. I don't know what you're expecting me to say right now. None of us have any idea if Josh Allen is going to become a franchise calibre QB in the NFL.

Talk to me in 3 years. 20 preseason passes probably isn't a large enough sample size to see how his career will go or start acting like people who bashed him before the draft should eat crow. Probably. I still don't want Allen on the field though. In my eyes, the longer Allen sits the better he'll be for it long term.

True. The best QB so far appears to have been Peterman. I'd like to see him keep Allen on the bench for at least a month so he can learn what it's like to be a pro and the preparation that needs to go into an NFL game before handing him the reigns. I'm not comfortable whatsoever giving him the ball week 1 when every scouting report said he was an enormous project.

I hope he isn't named starter. This preseason has been fairly reminiscent of 2013 when we signed Matt Flynn to keep EJ Manuel on the bench, he got hurt and we didn't bother trying to find another QB and we let our unprepared 1st round project on the field far too early. EJ had played relatively well, and we opted to start him even though the scouting reports all said he was a project. Allen is also a project, and although he's had a decent preseason so far making a couple flashy throws, we need to remember that he's mostly playing vanilla coverages and things will be much more complicated once the regular season begins and the games matter. His completion percentage and particularly his YPA is still very low so we shouldn't be acting like he's lighting the world on fire. What he has done is look the part in terms of demeanour and his control of the huddle, but we shouldn't get carried away. A small sample size of work in the preseason doesn't negate hours of film study which showed Allen as a guy who has a lot of work left to do. Additionally, Peterman has looked pretty good. I'd rather "trust the process" and play Peterman for as long as we can and stick with the plan to develop Allen. Putting him on the bench for a month or two, and letting him learn to be a pro and watch film on his opponents to see what he'll face in the regular season seems like the best option when thinking long term. I know the fans want instant gratification, but if the hope is that he'll be our QB for 10 years, I can wait a month, or even the full year if it increases his chances of being successful in the long run.

I don't think the preconceived notions about Allen were wrong at all. By most accounts he's looked exactly like his scouting reports said he'd look.

He hasn't earned it yet. He was the 3rd best QB wearing a Bills uniform last night. At this point the other two guys are better quarterbacks.

I honestly didn't see much difference between the two last night. Both looked relatively good. There's no clear cut starter at this point.

Josh Allen looked exactly how I expected him to look. He has an enormous arm, he can move really well to avoid pressure, and he completes a low percentage of his passes. Ultimately we score 7 points with him on the field. Given how Peterman and McCarron looked, Allen is still the #3 guy until further notice. He showed flashes, but he's got to show he can move the chains more consistently to challenge for the #1 job.

Our offense is going to be so bad. We have so little talent on that side of the ball. The good news is that the defense should be really good.

I think Flacco is done as a franchise QB, and Jackson is athletic enough to put defenses off balance for a year, maybe 2, without adapting his game to be a pocket passer. Without adapting his game, defenses will eventually figure him out, but he could be really exciting early on, leading them to more wins than they'd get with the alternative.

Just Lamar Jackson. If he can unseat Flacco, the Ravens could be really good this year.

EJ was a guy many scouts had as a 4th round prospect whose career has looked like someone who should have been picked in the 4th round. None of the things you mentioned helped, but there's no chance EJ was ever going to become a starting QB in the NFL. His accuracy will never be good enough, and he doesn't have enough feel for the game. Accuracy isn't something that can be learned in the NFL. You can refine it slightly, but rarely do inaccurate college QBs become accurate NFL QBs.

I'm just pointing out that in the past 20 years, very few QBs benefited from sitting on the bench. Most good 1st round QBs started as rookies, with maybe a handful of 1st round guys over that span who sat behind an incumbent starter. Ultimately we're talking about a position where fewer than 50% of the QBs picked in round 1 become successful. If you take away the guys who went #1 overall, that figure drops to a success rate of about 30%. That's the reality we accepted when we picked Josh Allen.

I find that their takes often don't make any sense. That there's rarely any real thought put into anything they say. Last night was especially confusing. They essentially just said that the Bills need to design an offense that emphasizes what Allen does well and ignores what he struggles with. They said they're fine with him throwing picks, or stalling drives, if every once and a while he hits on a big play. They were essentially describing the offense we had when JP Losman was out QB. Long stretches of the offense doing nothing but go 3 and out, only to have Losman hit on the occasional deep ball TD to Lee Evans. The result was a bad offense and a defense that often wound up on the field for way too long because the offense couldn't move the chains. If that's what they think we're getting with Allen, then we're screwed. Guys who do what they were describing simply aren't franchise calibre QBs at the NFL level.

Washington was always a terrible draft pick with no upside. He's a poor athlete for his position, has below average movement skills and strength and ultimately hasn't proven to be a good NFL player. I don't see him making the team.

Statistically speaking, Mark Sanchez was an abysmal QB his entire career. In his 4 years in NY, his highest QB Rating was a terrible 78.2. His teams were successful because they played elite defense and had excellent running games. If anything, he held them back badly.

You named 10 guys. Half of which never actually sat on the bench because they played as rookies.

Now put together a list of all the guys who sat and never amounted to anything. * Hint: it's 10 times longer than your list. ** Big Ben, Brees, Manning, Goff, Cousins and Stafford all played as rookies, learning on the field.

Very few QBs who sit on the bench early in their career go on to become successful NFL QBs. I agree that playing Allen early with this supporting cast would be a bad idea, but I also don't think Allen is a very good prospect to begin with. Good QBs show they're good very early on. Goff might be an exception, but way more often than not if a guy is going to be good he shows it in the first year or two they're in the NFL.

If a QB can play, they usually show it very early on.