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The Ringer article on the Diggs/Josh Allen relationship


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Here is the thing that I think the writer is completely missing and I think where people are getting fired up.  The writer doesn't appreciate how much teammates get behind Josh Allen as a leader versus Kirk Cousins.  Josh is a gamer and a guy that just balls out harder than anyone with effort.  Guys like that and are willing to put up with the issues in his game a lot more because of it and how much he will listen and adjust.  His teammates glow about him...have you ever heard that about Cousins?  The answer is no.  In fact, a lot of guys really didn't like him when he played in Washington.  He is the king of garbage time stats and crappy performances when it matters most (sans maybe one or two games in his career).

 

This is the ideal situation for Diggs - to be the number 1 with a solid 2 in Brown and a shifty slot guy in Beasley.   His stats may even decline, but this team and its culture are a lot more exciting and the promise of Allen is far more than the known commodity of meh that is Cousins.

 

I'm not even that big of a fan of the trade but understand it and outside of Hopkins - this was a huge upgrade at WR.  If only the Bills had a washed up back to trade.

Edited by Ayjent
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4 hours ago, Alphadawg7 said:

 

Here is what is SO stupid about this article.  

  1. Saying Allen cant hit the broadside of a barn is utterly a fireable offense for a writer proving he literally has zero intellect on said subject.  Allen completed nearly 60% while:
    1. Bills led the NFL in dropped passes.
    2. His starting WRs consisted of guys made up of Zay Jones, McKenzie, Foster and Duke Williams
    3. His starting trio of WRs for the longest stretch averaged 5'10" in height
    4. And his deep ball was off through first half the season
  2. He is grossly overlooking the IMPROVEMENT Josh made on the deep ball later in the season and in all other aspects of his passing game through the season.
    1. His WR group got better when we got dead weight off the field
    2. It takes time to build rapport with receivers, and as the season went on he started connecting with Brown deep and made some big plays
  3. Cousins only completed 6 more deep balls than Josh on similar attempts despite all those factors and not having a tandem of Thelien and Diggs to play with for 2 seasons.

At the end of the day, if you take the Josh down the stretch and project his connection rate over a whole season...he would protect better at the deep ball than Cousins and with lesser weapons none the less.  

 

We all know that means nothing until Josh does for a whole season, but the point is, Josh after starting abysmal at the deep ball both looked better at it as a rookie and down the stretch of his second season.  He had a bad start to it in 2019, but also that was when he had to throw a bunch to a scrub like Zay too and was still figuring out his timing with Brown.  If he doesnt struggle during that stretch, Josh would have also been above 60% completion.

 

So again...this writer is a moron and knows nothing about Josh Allen and just regurgitating out dated and false perceptions.  

 

Does Josh need to keep improving on the deep ball...absolutely.  Does he need to keep improving in other areas...absolutely.  But he is no where near the stupid statements this author wrote and made a lot of big strides in all these areas last year, especially down the stretch.  

Thanks for picking this apart. How someone has 20-30 minutes to devote to this kinda chit is admirable. You are now an 8.7 on the Bills Fandom scale. 

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4 hours ago, Alphadawg7 said:

 

Here is what is SO stupid about this article.  

  1. Saying Allen cant hit the broadside of a barn is utterly a fireable offense for a writer proving he literally has zero intellect on said subject.  Allen completed nearly 60% while:
    1. Bills led the NFL in dropped passes.
    2. His starting WRs consisted of guys made up of Zay Jones, McKenzie, Foster and Duke Williams
    3. His starting trio of WRs for the longest stretch averaged 5'10" in height
    4. And his deep ball was off through first half the season
  2. He is grossly overlooking the IMPROVEMENT Josh made on the deep ball later in the season and in all other aspects of his passing game through the season.
    1. His WR group got better when we got dead weight off the field
    2. It takes time to build rapport with receivers, and as the season went on he started connecting with Brown deep and made some big plays
  3. Cousins only completed 6 more deep balls than Josh on similar attempts despite all those factors and not having a tandem of Thelien and Diggs to play with for 2 seasons.

At the end of the day, if you take the Josh down the stretch and project his connection rate over a whole season...he would protect better at the deep ball than Cousins and with lesser weapons none the less.  

 

We all know that means nothing until Josh does for a whole season, but the point is, Josh after starting abysmal at the deep ball both looked better at it as a rookie and down the stretch of his second season.  He had a bad start to it in 2019, but also that was when he had to throw a bunch to a scrub like Zay too and was still figuring out his timing with Brown.  If he doesnt struggle during that stretch, Josh would have also been above 60% completion.

 

So again...this writer is a moron and knows nothing about Josh Allen and just regurgitating out dated and false perceptions.  

 

Does Josh need to keep improving on the deep ball...absolutely.  Does he need to keep improving in other areas...absolutely.  But he is no where near the stupid statements this author wrote and made a lot of big strides in all these areas last year, especially down the stretch.  

 

Allen in his first year had the worst deep ball accuracy in the entire NFL. This past season, he threw for the 3rd or 4th most passes over 20 yards, and was similarly ranked in the top for most inaccurate on those passes (don't feel like looking it up yet again). A good number of these passes were to wide open targets that had nothing but empty space ahead, while also playing against the easiest schedule in the NFL, and possibly the easiest schedule he'll ever see again.

But go ahead & pass the buck off on every other aspect of the team instead of the QB, but give him all the credit for the stuff he does do. Makes total sense. Also, Cousins was more accurate all around, and had a 111.8 passer rating compared to Allen's 85.3. Let's not pretend they're even comparable passers yet.

It's also amusing you pretend the way this article measures deep balls means they're pretty close...

"Allen completed just 18 of his 68 deep-pass attempts and had an abysmal passer rating of 64.4 (29th). Cousins went 24-of-61 on deep throws with a passer rating of 119.7 (third).Allen completed just 18 of his 68 deep-pass attempts and had an abysmal passer rating of 64.4 (29th). Cousins went 24-of-61 on deep throws with a passer rating of 119.7 (third)."

64.4 (29th) compared to 119.7 (3rd) is a pretty wide gap by NFL standards.

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7 hours ago, Seasons1992 said:

 

I don't think Allen's "thriving" would be unexpected to Daboll or McDermott or Beane or to people who have watched him improve from Year 1 to Year 2.  The "can't hit the broad side of a barn" thing is just tired.  I hope Josh finds it motivational. 

YO!  Riley McAtee!  Barn This!  And This! And furthermore This!

 

I think the fundamental point is sound: the Bills improved their offense last year, but we lacked an elite playmaker.  If the Bills want to see what Allen has really got, they need to give him a full complement of playmakers and time to throw. 

They also can't count on a mid-to-late 1st round rookie to necessarily come in and master Daboll's offense then contribute against top DBs from Day 1.

7 hours ago, Warcodered said:

Twitter is absolutely vile on Josh Allen right now.

 

I hope he lets it roll, except as motivation.

 

7 hours ago, H2o said:

The author also fails to take into account what a blithering idiot Bill O'Brien is. You can't logically compare the trade of Hopkins to any other because it absolutely defied all logic whatsoever. 

 

Yeah, that was pretty much this.  That's Bill O'Brien and the Texans as the four-legged fuzzy critters and Steve Keim and the Arizona Cardinals as the dudes wielding the clippers.

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1. The stats do not bear out Josh Allen's supposedly "can't hit the broadside of a barn" accuracy.

 

2. We haven't had a guy like Diggs since James Lofton.

 

3. We now have TWO of the best route runners in all of the NFL!!! Defenses can't double BOTH of them...

 

I don't get it...

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22 hours ago, Seasons1992 said:

 

That's a lot of draft capital & a big difference in what each have done, Beane really wanted this guy bad I would have much rather had Hopkins in his demeanor alone he's not a "look at me" player class act .

 

 

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-free-agency/0ap3000001106658/Explaining-trade-compensation-disparity-in-Diggs-Hopkins-deals

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Some of you are so sensitive.  Cousins, who has reached his ceiling and is a giant dork, is a better and much more accurate passer than Allen.  Diggs wasn’t happy with Kirk the Dork.  So it’s not unreasonable if Allen struggles to get him the ball, he might not be happy here too. Though he will like hanging out with Allen much better than Kirk the Dork. 

13 hours ago, EasternOHBillsFan said:

1. The stats do not bear out Josh Allen's supposedly "can't hit the broadside of a barn" accuracy.

 

2. We haven't had a guy like Diggs since James Lofton.

 

3. We now have TWO of the best route runners in all of the NFL!!! Defenses can't double BOTH of them...

 

I don't get it...

Under 60% in the nfl is pretty bad.  And Lee Evans. 

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22 hours ago, Alphadawg7 said:

 

Here is what is SO stupid about this article.  

  1. Saying Allen cant hit the broadside of a barn is utterly a fireable offense for a writer proving he literally has zero intellect on said subject.  Allen completed nearly 60% while:
    1. Bills led the NFL in dropped passes.
    2. His starting WRs consisted of guys made up of Zay Jones, McKenzie, Foster and Duke Williams
    3. His starting trio of WRs for the longest stretch averaged 5'10" in height
    4. And his deep ball was off through first half the season
  2. He is grossly overlooking the IMPROVEMENT Josh made on the deep ball later in the season and in all other aspects of his passing game through the season.
    1. His WR group got better when we got dead weight off the field
    2. It takes time to build rapport with receivers, and as the season went on he started connecting with Brown deep and made some big plays
  3. Cousins only completed 6 more deep balls than Josh on similar attempts despite all those factors and not having a tandem of Thelien and Diggs to play with for 2 seasons.

At the end of the day, if you take the Josh down the stretch and project his connection rate over a whole season...he would protect better at the deep ball than Cousins and with lesser weapons none the less.  

 

We all know that means nothing until Josh does for a whole season, but the point is, Josh after starting abysmal at the deep ball both looked better at it as a rookie and down the stretch of his second season.  He had a bad start to it in 2019, but also that was when he had to throw a bunch to a scrub like Zay too and was still figuring out his timing with Brown.  If he doesnt struggle during that stretch, Josh would have also been above 60% completion.

 

So again...this writer is a moron and knows nothing about Josh Allen and just regurgitating out dated and false perceptions.  

 

Does Josh need to keep improving on the deep ball...absolutely.  Does he need to keep improving in other areas...absolutely.  But he is no where near the stupid statements this author wrote and made a lot of big strides in all these areas last year, especially down the stretch.  

The dropped pass list was filled with a lot of bad qbs though.  http://hosted.stats.com/fb/tmleaders.asp?type=Receiving&range=NFL&rank=232
 

Not all drops are the same.  But can we all agree there are no more excuses for Allen if he doesn’t get over 60%?

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2 minutes ago, C.Biscuit97 said:

The dropped pass list was filled with a lot of bad qbs though.  http://hosted.stats.com/fb/tmleaders.asp?type=Receiving&range=NFL&rank=232
 

Not all drops are the same.  But can we all agree there are no more excuses for Allen if he doesn’t get over 60%?


All dropped passes are actually the same though.  The standard is set to what is a counter as a drop and it only counts on well placed balls.  
 

Not all facts are “excuses”.  Points I made were real and legit factors and he still greatly improved from year 1 to year 2 wouldn’t you agree?  
 

And yes, for sure the same type of growth is expected to continue this year, especially with a good cast of weapons around him.  This is the year to quiet to remaking skeptics or validate their concerns.  

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Just now, Alphadawg7 said:


All dropped passes are actually the same though.  The standard is set to what is a counter as a drop and it only counts on well placed balls.  
 

Not all facts are “excuses”.  Points I made were real and legit factors and he still greatly improved from year 1 to year 2 wouldn’t you agree?  
 

And yes, for sure the same type of growth is expected to continue this year, especially with a good cast of weapons around him.  This is the year to quiet to remaking skeptics or validate their concerns.  

So where drop passes holding Tribusky back last year?  I definitely agree he made progress but at some point I’d you never ever have been over 60% passing, maybe it’s him.  
 

but with Diggs who just played with a 70% passer, I just don’t want anymore excuses.  He’s a top 10 pick with a lot of pieces around him and a great defense that keeps him in every game.  Sink or swim time. 

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Just now, C.Biscuit97 said:

So where drop passes holding Tribusky back last year?  I definitely agree he made progress but at some point I’d you never ever have been over 60% passing, maybe it’s him.  
 

but with Diggs who just played with a 70% passer, I just don’t want anymore excuses.  He’s a top 10 pick with a lot of pieces around him and a great defense that keeps him in every game.  Sink or swim time. 


Trubisky has his own issues.  They are not the same.  
 

Facts are, Allen was just a hair under 60% and also Bills led league in drops.  Simple math shows fewer drops and his same performance puts him over 60% alone.

 

Furthermore, it’s undeniable that Allen struggled with the deep ball first parts of season.  But he improved down the stretch.  If he connects at the rate he did down the stretch over the whole season, he would have been well over 60% as well.

 

So as long as he continues that trend and also takes another step forward, he should certainly see the comp % rise significantly yet again with Diggs here.

 

So I don’t see these as “excuses”, they were facts and undeniably affected the fabled 60% mark people are clamoring for.  There is a lot to be excited for IMO.  
 

But I do agree, he needs to show another step forward this year to prove he hasn’t peaked and is truly the franchise QB most of us believe he is.

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