Josh Allen---has your opinion changed on him since draft night?

[TheBrownBear]

I was distraught when we drafted him.  I thought his upside was Jake Locker. 

 

Now, I love the kid.  He's our John Elway.

[Tenhigh]

2 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

Haha I know exactly what you mean.  My daughter dislikes it intensely when I swear, so I try hard not to.  It wasn't just an F-bomb with me, it was more like an F-fusillade with a side order of several minutes inventive cussing.  I believe I instantaneously conducted a geneaological survey of Beane's ancestry for several generations.

I am picturing Clark Griswold after getting his Jelly of the Month bonus.

[Big Turk]

14 minutes ago, Tenhigh said:

I am picturing Clark Griswold after getting his Jelly of the Month bonus.

But the question is did his cousin Eddie go kidnap Brandon Beane??

[Tenhigh]

20 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

But the question is did his cousin Eddie go kidnap Brandon Beane??

Lol. My brother and I once hatched a drunken scheme to kidnap Farve in that same manner. Our thoughts were that we could keep him at our local bar and he'd eventually develop stokholm syndrome and demand to be traded to the Bills.  

I cant decide if I should be happy or sad that we never tried to pull it off....

Edited January 2, 2019 by Tenhigh

[78thealltimegreat]

Have to admit I was a Baker guy cause I think his attitude was sorely needed but man since preseason I’ve been on the Josh train you know when you see a kid who is different and he definitely is his skillset is just unbelievable  add to that he had the highest wonderlic score and we may just see the AFC title game in two years 

[Luka]

2 hours ago, Jay_Fixit said:

Absolutely.

 

He still has the issues with ball placement and decision making that worried me in college, but his leadership and ability to make a play has changed the way I see him.

 

I wanted Darnold and Mayfield and no part of either Josh.

 

Glad that I appear to be wrong as of now.

 

I think his accuracy issues are a bit overblown now compared to draft night. I also never knew he'd be a better runner than Tyrod.

[OrediggerPoke]

After having watched every college home game during Josh Allen's career, i was extremely disappointed on draft night that the Broncos decided to forego the most physically gifted QB I had ever seen since John Elway.  I didn't think that journeyman Case Keenum was the long term solution for the Broncos at QB.  I had tears in  my eyes knowing that the Broncos let the guy that had more heart than I had ever seen on the football field slip through their grasp and that I would not longer be able to watch him live on a weekly a basis.  My opinion has not changed one bit.

 

But...I get so many Bills fans that come talk to me on the ski slopes about the Bills while I am wearing my Blue and White #17 Bills jersey!  Now, I don't bother watching the Broncos games because I already know the outcome and tune into the Bills games so that I can continue to be inspired. 

 

Stats are for losers.  Give me Josh Allen over all the others in last year's draft!

[Success]

9 hours ago, Stank_Nasty said:

I talked myself into it within a hour after the draft and was all in. I’ve always been able to do that as a fan. 

 

I also thought everyone coming in here like they knew how these qb’s would pan out one way or the other looked like fools and I told them as much. 

 

If people come on here and act like they “know” how a qb is gonna workout it usually says to me they hadn’t watched a ton of the nfl or drafts over the years. 

I could have posted this verbatim.

 

I watch some college ball.  I know only the tiniest fraction of what our scouts and guys like Beane know about football - so when they draft someone, I’m all in, pretty much immediately.

 

Obviously, if we have decision makers who repeatedly blow drafts, it invites more skepticism.  But Beane hasn’t done anything to diminish giving him the benefit of the doubt.

 

So, I was excited about Allen from the start.  Now that I’ve seen Allen play, and exhort teammates in the sideline, and hurdle defenders - I’m over the moon.  We endured a QB search for the ages - since Clinton was President, and there was no such thing as a message board.

 

And we finally found the guy.  I have no doubt - we will be watching Josh Allen under center for many years. 

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

1 hour ago, Bangarang said:

I am cautiously optimistic on the verge of downright giddiness depending on how our offseason goes.

 

I didn’t want Allen at all but he’s been far better than I anticipated.

[thebandit27]

Nope

[Orlando Tim]

I was happy when they got him and i am even happier today. So i went from a 7 to an 8 in the happy category.

[Victory Formation]

Everybody wanted Rosen because they looked at his stat sheet and compared it to Allen's and automatically assumed he was the better QB. The problem with doing that is the talent between the two schools is disproportionate to each others. I think even a marginal QB would have put up big numbers at UCLA. Allen had nothing to work with at Wyoming yet he still made big big plays. I had no idea he was so athletic though, that I was unaware of. I knew he'd be good but he exceeded my expectations going into the season and I think he can be better than Baker Mayfield in the long run and I think his accuracy will continue to climb. In my heart of hearts I think we got the last good QB in the draft. I think Arizona and Baltimore missed the bus.

[CincyBillsFan]

8 hours ago, racketmaster said:

Watching his Wyoming games you could immediately see he was a special talent. His arm talent, size and athleticism jumps off the screen. You saw (especially his 2017 year) that he had little to no supporting cast. He played alot of “hero” ball and he loved to push the ball down the field even though he had limited weapons on the outside. 

 

You also had an almost unprecedented amount of Allen critics. There were major flags when analyzing his statistics and this caused much of the concerns. You also had those occasional throws that were totally off the mark because his mechanics got sloppy. Those throws opened the door for his critics to “show” how bad he would be as a pro. The negative noise was so loud I began to question my own opinion of Allen. Ultimately, I liked the pick and trusted the opinions of many long time scouts and coaches who liked Allen rather than the analytics guys. 

 

Its not that analytics aren’t useful or cannot be trusted, but there has to be some context. When watching the games, you could see he was better the previous year when he had a few decent players around him. His supporting cast was awful last year and the team relied on him to carry the offense. His WRs got so little separation and the throws he attempted to make were often in small windows 15+ yards downfield. There were a ton of NFL elite arm throws in his tape. And some were completed, others were dropped and others were just batted down by defenders blanketing the wr. You also saw him too often struggle with easier shorter throws that gave the Twitter critics more ammunition.

 

What I really liked was the kids competitive fire and the fact he never threw his teammates under the bus for not helping him in any way. No bad facial expressions or complaining. One play caught my eye and it was one of the first games I saw of Allen. It was the Iowa game and there was a play where there was a jailbreak and Allen ended up running around the pocket breaking and dragging Iowa defenders. It may have been a no gain play but it literally took 7-8 Iowa defenders to bring him down to the ground. He fought so hard and would not give up. It’s something in his character and it shows in his play (often good like extending plays to Ivory last week) and other times throwing the ball up to a Jets defender a few weeks ago when he was trying to do to much. He is competitive and has a hard time giving up on a play. 

 

I think most of his critics (speaking of Bills fans) had not watched a lot of his games if any. They heard the noise and were scared we made a mistake and would be made fun of by the media and other fans. But once fans got to see him in training camp and in preseason, you could see opinions starting to change. He started off pretty rough once the regular season began and he lost some of those fans who had come on board. Heck, I started to question whether he could process the game at the level it requires. But there were still flashes that gave you hope and when he came back from injury he has not looked back. With the stretch run he put together I think the Bills found their guy and most fans are on board with Allen going forward. I keep going back to this: It’s really hard to be a bust when you have elite arm strength, the ability to make incredible throws on the run, his running ability, competitiveness,intelligence, leadership/character, love of playing the game, and confidence measured with some degree of humility. He checks most every box and his flags were poor mechanics in short throws and inadequate mental processing. Hard work and experience can improve the negatives so that they are less obvious than they are now. Because he is so competitive and loves the game, I feel the hard work part will be a given. Sky’s the limit with this kid. 

 

Great post.  That he doesn't throw his teammates under the bus, even for a moment in the heat of a game, is all you need to see about his character. 

[JESSEFEFFER]

I intentionally did not study the QB class although I knew the Bills would take one.  I saw no point to having a favorite and then the Bills either having no chance at him or, worse yet, having a chance and taking someone different.  So, I kind of understand where the Rosen people are coming from.  The Josh is raw talk was like deja vu with "EJ is like a ball of clay."  The NFL has no patience for QB sculpture and I am not sure there was/is the right coaching in place to develop him, so I was somewhat skeptical.   Watching him play, seeing how he carried the offense, being shocked by how his size and athleticism has stood out against NFL defenders, feeling that he has improved in obvious and quantifiable ways, I think the Rosenites need to give it up.  He's our guy.

[Jay_Fixit]

1 hour ago, Luka said:

 

I think his accuracy issues are a bit overblown now compared to draft night. I also never knew he'd be a better runner than Tyrod.

He still has issues with the easy throws, mainly the swing passes and screens.

 

Plus he passes those throws up a little too much.

 

Hopefully he works tirelessly on that and then next year he uses the opportunities to get those easy completions.

 

Hell, Tom Brady has lived off the RB completion for years now.

[Mango]

23 minutes ago, NewDayBills said:

Everybody wanted Rosen because they looked at his stat sheet and compared it to Allen's and automatically assumed he was the better QB. The problem with doing that is the talent between the two schools is disproportionate to each others. I think even a marginal QB would have put up big numbers at UCLA. Allen had nothing to work with at Wyoming yet he still made big big plays. I had no idea he was so athletic though, that I was unaware of. I knew he'd be good but he exceeded my expectations going into the season and I think he can be better than Baker Mayfield in the long run and I think his accuracy will continue to climb. In my heart of hearts I think we got the last good QB in the draft. I think Arizona and Baltimore missed the bus.

 

 

I was a Rosen guy admittedly. And admittedly I have been a bit disappointed this year. I’m also really excited about Allen. He is a fun player to watch behind center...that said the book isn’t written on either. There is reason to be cautiously optimistic about Allen. And cautiously pessimistic about Rosen. 

 

What i I dislike about this is poo pooing analytics or stats. What people liked about Rosen was they he was a more “precise passer” (seems to be a buzz word around these parts. That his college career in most categories gave him a chance at a higher success rate than Allen. No matter how their careers pan out that still true. If Allen turns into Favre and Rosen into Edwards, that doesn’t change the probability coming out of college. 

 

Just because a FO swam against the current once, doesn’t mean it is good practice. And just because you swim perpendicular to shore in a rip tide, and still drowned, doesn’t mean it’s a flawed practice.

 

no matter what happens a bunch of us will be right and a bunch of us wrong. Still, nobody knows and people need to be less polarizing about it. 

[Dr.Sack]

I knew he was a good athlete and could run, what I didn’t think was that his running would be so efficient. We knew he was inaccurate and he certainly way. What I didn’t expect was his accuracy to drop 6%. His ability to throw on the run was impressive. His command of the huddle and presence wasn’t expected. He outperformed my expectations, but he has a long way to go. 

[Buffalo Barbarian]

Yeah but i didn't hate him i just wanted Baker. But seeing his tools and potential (hate that word) the sky is the limit and can't wait.

 

 

[SoCal Deek]

It’s pretty simple really:

 

Upside:

Athleticism and attitude 

 

Downside:

Accuracy and consistency 

 

They can’t teach those upsides, so we’ll all hope they can work on those downsides in the offseason.

[CincyBillsFan]

3 hours ago, LSHMEAB said:

My hope is that this will ultimately be the difference between Allen and his boom/bust predecessors. Anecdotally, it would seem guys with such natural talent are unwilling to put in the work required to improve because they'd always gotten by on talent alone. Perhaps Allen's history of being overlooked by the likes of Fresno State separates him from the Jake Locker's who were handed everything before entering the NFL. It's really an oddity that someone so obviously gifted had to go the Juco/Wyoming route.

 

This times 100! 

 

I suspect that if Allen becomes an elite QB in the NFL this will be the reason.  His history, given his obvious talent, is unprecedented.  You know who this reminds me of?  A certain RB who was very annoyed that he wasn't a 1st round pick.  I think deep down Allen has a lot of the same motivating factors that helped Thurman become one of the greatest RB's in NFL history.