Getty Bills quarterback Josh Allen warms up at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on December 10, 2023.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen landed at No. 3 on ESPN’s ranking of the NFL’s top signal-callers, but not everyone around the league is a fan.
“One of the more overrated players in the NFL,” one NFL executive told ESPN, according to Jeremy Fowler’s July 15 story. “Immense talent but he makes a lot of mistakes. He’s underdeveloped at winning at the line of scrimmage, tends to lock on to targets, more of a thrower than precision passer, forces throws into traffic.”
Fowler wrote that Allen was a polarizing pick, the only quarterback other than Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs to get a first-place ranking from league executives surveyed for the ranking. At least one exec ranked him as low as the seventh best quarterback in the league. Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals was ranked second.
Fowler wrote that the list was compiled using the executive survey, “dozens of interviews” and research and film analysis by ESPN’s Matt Bowen.
Josh Allen’s ‘Brilliance & Inconsistency’
Allen did not win over everyone, with some criticizing the Bills quarterback’s play style and propensity for taking risks.
“Allen’s blend of brilliance and inconsistency has left voters with mixed feelings,” Fowler wrote.
Many of the unnamed executives quoted said that the Bills take both the good and bad from Allen — with the good outweighing it the majority of the time. Some noted that the Bills have fallen short of their Super Bowl aspirations during Allen’s tenure, but it doesn’t seem to be the quarterback’s fault.
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“He leaves you wanting more a little bit,” an AFC executive said. “But if you’re picking who you want to have to lead your team, he’s going to be second or third for most people. The ceiling is still really high. And I don’t really feel he was the reason the Bills haven’t been able to finish.”
But others took a more critical view, pointing to Allen’s turnovers. Fowler noted that he has thrown 78 interceptions and had 59 fumbles since coming into the league in 2018.
Bills Quarterback Worked to Improve His Game
Allen has acknowledged criticism of his turnovers, often placing blame on himself after losses. He has also been working to improve his game, teaming up with a California-based sports science company called Biometrek this offseason to work on his mechanics.
As Sal Maiorana of the Democrat & Chronicle reported, the company recorded Allen’s throwing motion and broke it down to identify any inefficiencies and worked with him to improve those areas.
Allen said he was forced to tweak his throwing motion last season after suffering a nagging shoulder injury, but didn’t want the changes to turn into a bad habit.
“I wouldn’t call it a complete overhaul of my throwing motion, but definitely some things to work on and clean up,” Allen said. “Anytime you go through something like that, sometimes it’s gonna feel really good, sometimes it’s not gonna feel really good. It’s just like changing your swing in golf, as long as you’re trusting it and you keep working on it, each and every day results will come.”