Jump to content

Step-by-step, how the Bills knew Josh Allen was right for them


Recommended Posts

8 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

There was a thread about Darnold sometime back and how the NYJ had all this QB work done while Brandon Beane was saying "we're not ready to rank them yet..." blah blah at the Combine.  I called "shenanigans" and said they'd done the work, Beane might not be ready to do a final ranking but they'd been doing homework, watching film, live games as much as any team in need of a QB.

 

From this, it would appear "shenanigans" was the right call.

 

 

So, it was all Mularkey?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

I believe "other guys" are mentioned as "any quarterback that was in this thing"

 

Please keep in mind when Beane was asked if they'd be bringing in Rosen as one of their 30 pre-draft visits, he answered "oh yeah" before the reporter finished the question, so to think they weren't interested in Rosen is probably as revisionist as thinking they were excessively interested based on the above.

 

 

 

They kicked the tires and ruled him out. It’s pretty clear, I think, that it was down to Allen, Mayfield, Darnold, and Rudolph.

Edited by Sky Diver
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe a little more detail here, but no real surprises.  Essentally, my take from it is that Allen was not a finished product at Wyoming, but the biggest issue is footwork.  Just about anything else they looked at was a plus.  Some QBs in college have a better completion percentage, but a significant factor in that is the type of offense, that essentially lets a QB pad his stats with easy throws.  There was little of that at Wyoming.  He's showed improvement in footwork since the end of the college season.

 

I'm just waiting to see him passing to receivers in Bills uniforms with DBs on the field that are wearing the uniform of the enemy.

Edited by TigerJ
Link to comment
Share on other sites

48 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

There was a thread about Darnold sometime back and how the NYJ had all this QB work done while Brandon Beane was saying "we're not ready to rank them yet..." blah blah at the Combine.  I called "shenanigans" and said they'd done the work, Beane might not be ready to do a final ranking but they'd been doing homework, watching film, live games as much as any team in need of a QB.

 

From this, it would appear "shenanigans" was the right call.

 

 

 

I swear to God I'll pistol whip the next guy who says "Shenanigans."

  • Haha (+1) 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

From the Buffalo News "How the Bills' front office arrived on Josh Allen as the team's franchise QB" article:

 

The process of landing on that conclusion started almost a year ago. Beane and Schoen spent much of last August reviewing the 2016 game film of the draft-eligible quarterbacks. That expanded beyond the four quarterbacks whom most analysts had as first-rounders: Allen, Oklahoma's Baker Mayfield, USC's Sam Darnold and UCLA's Josh Rosen.

 

https://buffalonews.com/2018/07/19/how-the-bills-front-office-survived-then-arrived-on-josh-allen-as-their-franchise-qb/

 

Edited by ricojes
Link to comment
Share on other sites

55 minutes ago, Sky Diver said:

 

They kicked the tires and ruled him out. It’s pretty clear, I think, that it was down to Mayfield, Darnold, and Rudolph.

 

It was down to Allen, Darnold and Rudolph.  The Bills were not drafting Mayfield or Rosen. That was the intel I got from my contact after the draft. Rosen and Mayfield were off their board. They would have taken Rudolph later in the 1st had they not landed Allen.  

 

Anyway I can't read the article.  WGR hates British people. 

 

And Rosen will still be the best NFL Qb out of this class FWIW. 

  • Like (+1) 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Commonsense said:

I remember that and agreed at the time. Beane is quietly clever in front of a camera. He says nothing most of the time.

 

He says more than McDermott.  There are little nuggets in Beane's pressers.  You have to read between the lines but they are there.  McDermott speaks for 18 minutes, give or take, every Monday of the season and says absolutely nothing at all.  It is quite a skill. 

  • Thank you (+1) 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

It was down to Allen, Darnold and Rudolph.  The Bills were not drafting Mayfield or Rosen. That was the intel I got from my contact after the draft. Rosen and Mayfield were off their board. They would have taken Rudolph later in the 1st had they not landed Allen.  

 

Anyway I can't read the article.  WGR hates British people. 

 

And Rosen will still be the best NFL Qb out of this class FWIW. 

 

Why was Rosen off their board?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

27 minutes ago, sunshynman said:

 

I swear to God I'll pistol whip the next guy who says "Shenanigans."

 

I never engage in such shen... antics, high jinks, escapades, horse play, tomfoolery ... 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

It was down to Allen, Darnold and Rudolph.  The Bills were not drafting Mayfield or Rosen. That was the intel I got from my contact after the draft. Rosen and Mayfield were off their board. They would have taken Rudolph later in the 1st had they not landed Allen.  

 

Anyway I can't read the article.  WGR hates British people. 

 

And Rosen will still be the best NFL Qb out of this class FWIW. 

 

Apparently they also had Jackson off their board then?

 

Interesting QB scouting evaluations per your source considering that Mayfield went 1st overall and Mason Rudolph fell to the 3rd.

 

4 minutes ago, Sky Diver said:

Why was Rosen off their board?

 

Why were Jackson, Mayfield, and Rosen off their board, and why did they have Rudolph ranked 2 rounds higher than anyone else?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

He had no gimme throws,” Beane said. “There’s no, basically like handoffs, the bubbles and all that stuff. It was all a traditional pro style, throwing the ball vertically, and you basically have to do your own stats. How many times did he bail out of there and throw it away?”

 

As a result, the Bills came up with their own statistics on Allen and the rest of the quarterbacks. On the throws Allen did miss, Beane kept coming back to one thing.

“It was pretty clear it’s when his feet were not right, he said. “The most positive thing I saw, when he was at the Senior Bowl, his feet were in a much better position that week. He was much more accurate, not only during the week, but even in the game.”

 

The other part of the Senior Bowl that Beane liked was Allen’s competitive nature.

 

“I know his agents were all wanting him to play a series or two and get out because everyone is fearing injury – and he was like, ‘No, I’m coming back in the second half,’ ” Beane said. “His agent was probably like, ‘Why?’ He came back and led them on two different touchdown drives.”

 

...

 

During the Bills’ private workout of Allen, Daboll had him make 42 different throws, without telling him beforehand what they would be.

 

“It’s, ‘OK, throw the deep dig now. Five-step, this. Go.’ And he processed it quickly,” Beane said. “Hey, it’s cover-two – all that stuff, mental, physical. He didn’t get to practice those throws. Yes, some of them he has done, but he didn’t get to practice every throw that was coming. His footwork was very good, his workout was very good. We left there, we felt very confident.”

 

Allen has said the Bills were his only private workout.

 

...

 

“There were game where his stats were bad,” Beane admitted. “Go look at his stats for Colorado State (10 of 20 for 138 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions). But if you watch that game, they’re not winning that game without Josh Allen. He was running the ball. He was their leading rusher, obviously leading passer. … All the things that he brings beyond just standing back and throwing the ball.”

 

 

Everyone's favorite buffalonews has a bunch of good quotes too.

 

https://buffalonews.com/2018/07/19/how-the-bills-front-office-survived-then-arrived-on-josh-allen-as-their-franchise-qb/

 

 

 

I'm surprised the Bills were the only team to have a private workout with Allen. I looked it up and a few sites say he had 7 meetings, but only 1 private workout. I'm not sure what conclusion to make about it, but I'm glad the Bills did their due diligence with him.  From some quick google searches, I see the Bills also had private workouts with Rosen, Darnold, Falk, and Alex McGough, while having visits with Mayfield and Rudolph, and then they met Jackson and a few others at the combine.  

 

It'll be interesting to see what strides he's made in regards to his footwork when camp hits. Does he revert back to opening his front side too much on throws to the left side of the field? If he does that early in training camp, it'll be clear he shouldn't start. If it looks like he's cleaned it up, it'll be pretty encouraging. It won't mean he should start, but it'd be an early big first step for his development. 

 

 

 

  • Like (+1) 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Apparently they also had Jackson off their board then?

 

Interesting QB scouting evaluations per your source considering that Mayfield went 1st overall and Mason Rudolph fell to the 3rd.

 

 

Why were Jackson, Mayfield, and Rosen off their board, and why did they have Rudolph ranked 2 rounds higher than anyone else?

 

I know where Rudolph was drafted, but I don’t know where other teams had them ranked. Steelers said they had a 1st rd grade on him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...