Serious Question:

[Historian]

Josh Allen is the most gifted quarterback I have seen since John Elway.

How does Josh Allen slip through the cracks?

How is it that he gets no college offers?

How is it he has to sell himself just to get signed by Wyoming, of all places.

This guy has gotten better at football every year, mostly through hard work.

But he's a huge physical specimen.

He hurdles defenders.

His arm is a freakin cannon.

On top of it all...he's actually a nice guy. Very humble in victory and defeat.

How is it that eight NFL teams passed on him in the draft????

HOW THE **** DOES THIS GUY SLIP THROUGH THE CRACKS?

I honestly want to know.

[Woodman]

Re: Serious Question:

We have been praying for a QB for it seems like forever our prayer was finally answered.

Was he judged just to be too raw?

I really have no idea.

[Forward_Lateral]

Re: Serious Question:

I'm pretty sure he's said that he didn't hit a big growth spurt until either his senior year in high school, or it might've even been as a freshman in college.

[YardRat]

Re: Serious Question:

Technically there were only 6 teams that passed on him, he was the 7th pick. Also technically he got two offers, but Eastern Michigan pulled theirs after Josh visited Wyoming (I didn't know that either until doing research for this thread, in all honesty).

And there are a bunch of people...even "experts" that get paid good money to work in the league...that believe in dumbass narratives like "accuracy can't be taught".

Don't forget he spent a year at Reedley JUCO, where he put up OK numbers but nowhere near the dominance one would expect for an athlete to get a chance to make a jump to D1. Also, he was widely characterized as the rawest of the raw, and truth be known his mechanics were a complete wreck even at Wyoming.

Realistically, who would expect him to put in the time and effort that he has to improve his entire skill set when up until the draft he really hadn't shown any indication that he had in the past?

[Gibby 2.0]

Re: Serious Question:

Josh Allen is the most gifted quarterback I have seen since John Elway.

How does Josh Allen slip through the cracks?

How is it that he gets no college offers?

How is it he has to sell himself just to get signed by Wyoming, of all places.

This guy has gotten better at football every year, mostly through hard work.

But he's a huge physical specimen.

He hurdles defenders.

His arm is a freakin cannon.

On top of it all...he's actually a nice guy. Very humble in victory and defeat.

How is it that eight NFL teams passed on him in the draft????

HOW THE **** DOES THIS GUY SLIP THROUGH THE CRACKS?

I honestly want to know.

Sometimes I feel God makes QBs for the Bills and WNY. Hear me out. Buffalo is an overlooked city. No seriously, nationally it is. Its a rust belt town, blue collar, lunch pail, union work your butt off kind of town. Full of people who are gonna get knocked down, but like their Bills they are always going to get right back up. Josh IS Buffalo. The City is Josh. Josh had to work hard for everything he got, he has to go out and fight for respect. He has to go out and take the burden on himself. Its a Buffalo spirit. Savor this guy, appreciate that he is probably going to play his entire career here. He fell through the cracks because he was meant to be in Buffalo and Buffalo was meant to have him.

[Cntrygal]

Re: Serious Question:

I'm pretty sure he's said that he didn't hit a big growth spurt until either his senior year in high school, or it might've even been as a freshman in college.

That's what I heard. I think he even mentions it in one of his interviews.

Technically there were only 6 teams that passed on him, he was the 7th pick. Also technically he got two offers, but Eastern Michigan pulled theirs after Josh visited Wyoming (I didn't know that either until doing research for this thread, in all honesty).

And there are a bunch of people...even "experts" that get paid good money to work in the league...that believe in dumbass narratives like "accuracy can't be taught".

Don't forget he spent a year at Reedley JUCO, where he put up OK numbers but nowhere near the dominance one would expect for an athlete to get a chance to make a jump to D1. Also, he was widely characterized as the rawest of the raw, and truth be known his mechanics were a complete wreck even at Wyoming.

Realistically, who would expect him to put in the time and effort that he has to improve his entire skill set when up until the draft he really hadn't shown any indication that he had in the past?

I don't remember hearing about the Eastern Michigan offer - but they could kiss my ass if they withdrew an offer just because I stopped somewhere else first.

[POTLAND PSILBYLO]

Re: Serious Question:

Technically there were only 6 teams that passed on him, he was the 7th pick. Also technically he got two offers, but Eastern Michigan pulled theirs after Josh visited Wyoming (I didn't know that either until doing research for this thread, in all honesty).

And there are a bunch of people...even "experts" that get paid good money to work in the league...that believe in dumbass narratives like "accuracy can't be taught".

Don't forget he spent a year at Reedley JUCO, where he put up OK numbers but nowhere near the dominance one would expect for an athlete to get a chance to make a jump to D1. Also, he was widely characterized as the rawest of the raw, and truth be known his mechanics were a complete wreck even at Wyoming.

Realistically, who would expect him to put in the time and effort that he has to improve his entire skill set when up until the draft he really hadn't shown any indication that he had in the past?

Technically, no. It was seven teams. Just like we passed on Majomez, our trade partner for the Allen pick did so also.

So you’re WRONG.

[Mad Max]

Re: Serious Question:

Josh Allen is the most gifted quarterback I have seen since John Elway.

How does Josh Allen slip through the cracks?

How is it that he gets no college offers?

How is it he has to sell himself just to get signed by Wyoming, of all places.

This guy has gotten better at football every year, mostly through hard work.

But he's a huge physical specimen.

He hurdles defenders.

His arm is a freakin cannon.

On top of it all...he's actually a nice guy. Very humble in victory and defeat.

How is it that eight NFL teams passed on him in the draft????

HOW THE **** DOES THIS GUY SLIP THROUGH THE CRACKS?

I honestly want to know.

We are lucky (blessed?) to have gotten him.

He “slipped” to us because he had zero polish, came from a tiny obscure program (even there his numbers were just ok)…he was going to be a huge project and essentially a lottery ticket. The NFL is littered with failure (on paper) on better projects (Akili Smith, Heath Shuler, Ryan Leaf to name a few) so teams rightfully so are wary.

Thank goodness we/he defied the odds and hit the mega jackpot :)

[cookie G]

Re: Serious Question:

Technically there were only 6 teams that passed on him, he was the 7th pick. Also technically he got two offers, but Eastern Michigan pulled theirs after Josh visited Wyoming (I didn't know that either until doing research for this thread, in all honesty).

And there are a bunch of people...even "experts" that get paid good money to work in the league...that believe in dumbass narratives like "accuracy can't be taught".

Don't forget he spent a year at Reedley JUCO, where he put up OK numbers but nowhere near the dominance one would expect for an athlete to get a chance to make a jump to D1. Also, he was widely characterized as the rawest of the raw, and truth be known his mechanics were a complete wreck even at Wyoming.

Realistically, who would expect him to put in the time and effort that he has to improve his entire skill set when up until the draft he really hadn't shown any indication that he had in the past?

Good answer. And as had been discussed numerous times, not too many QBs improve their accuracy from college to the NFL. I don't want to say he's the original exception, but he's close to it.

We got lucky, really lucky. As you say, he put in the time ot get better, and not only did he put in the time, he did so intelligently. He worked on what needed to be fixed, and found the right people to help him in that regard.

Most don't.

[DraftBoy]

Re: Serious Question:

He played in a poorly rated HS football classification in California, didn’t really get big until he was a senior, and then took a number of years to figure out how to make his size and athleticism work together.

There are thousands of prospects who never figure it out. Allen is an exception and it’s less about him slipping through the cracks as it is a testament to his commitment to his own development and craft.

Also surrounding himself with the right people, like Palmer, to help oversee some of his more critical development.

[Cali512]

Re: Serious Question:

Allen is more talented then Elway. He was talented but he didnt really hit his peak till his 30s


Since Elway, i feel like Rodgers, Mahomes, Luck, and Allen are the most talented QBs and i feel like they are a level up over Elway. YES its much easier now in days, but look at dan marino, Jim Kelly, Steve young, Brett Favre who played during Elways time period. To say the numbers were different back then, and then look at how those QBs faired in the same era, Elway is slightly over rated. His name, and hype kept his legacy where it was.


Look at the actual numbers, Elway wasnt this incredible QB. Never passed 27 tds, never had less than 10 ints, only once had 4,000 yds


Like i said, look at the QBs in his era, you can not say it was due to how the nfl was played back then. His name and stardom is more to do with his draft status then actual production on the field

[YardRat]

Re: Serious Question:

Technically, no. It was seven teams. Just like we passed on Majomez, our trade partner for the Allen pick did so also.

So you’re WRONG.

That's fair, seven it is.

[OpIv37]

Re: Serious Question:

Actually, I’ve been thinking about what I suppose is the inverse of Historian’s question: how did McBeane know?

Eveyone at every level passed on Allen. When he was drafted, he was considered the least experienced and riskiest QB that year.

How did McD and Beane know? Was it pure luck or did they really see something in Josh that no one else did? They’re both younger guys and there’s a good chance their careers will outlast Josh’s playing days, so I hope they don’t reveal their secret in case they need to do it again. But someday I want to know how they cracked the code that no one else could. They were locked in on Josh in that draft when no one else was, and they were right.

[Novacane]

Re: Serious Question:

Impossible to answer IMO. I'd be surprised if even McBeane thought he'd be this good.

[TigerJ]

Re: Serious Question:

There are lots of reasons, many of which have been touched on in this thread. I figure that college coaches know they have so many scholarships to hand out. A late developing high school kid doesn't give you good odds of finding a quality starter. In the same vein, NFL GMs generally want more to go on when picking in the top ten spots of the NFL draft than a kid with freakish athletic traits, from a poorly regarded college, that can't complete more than 50% of his passes. Brandon Beane swung for the fences when he picked Josh Allen. A lot of home run hitters have a mediocre batting average. Most of the time Beane doesn't take those kinds of chances in his draft picks, but given the rarity of truly elite QBs and Buffalo's desperate need, he did with Allen, and to the good fortune of the Bills and Bills fans everywhere he scored a home run.