Josh Allen faces mixed reviews after Senior Bowl practice
Towering above his competition at 6-foot-5 and weighing in at a sturdy 240 pounds, University of Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen has all the physical tools an NFL scout dreams about when they envision a perfect quarterback prospect. He can launch the ball at a blazing 66 miles per hour, six more miles per hours than the current NFL Combine record, and as you can see in the video above, he can throw with pin point accuracy when he’s dialed in.
Allen seems like a safe bet to go in the first round, my only issue with that projection is that he’s rarely seemed completely comfortable in his own skin while on a football field. While other quarterback prospects like Baker Mayfield, Josh Rosen and Sam Darnold have enjoyed success leading their teams to victory against the best competition Division I football has to offer, Allen has sometimes struggled as the centerpiece on a somewhat average team.
It would be unfair to punish Allen’s draft stock just because he plays for a small school in a weaker conference. After all, Ben Roethlisberger, Tony Romo, and Joe Flacco competed for schools outside of the Power Five conferences and still managed to enjoy incredible success at the next level.
However, Allen’s 44 passing touchdowns and 56.2 career completion percentage while under center for the Cowboys don’t even come close to measuring up to the numbers his small school NFL predecessors achieved. Not only does he lack the statistics to back up his case for a first round selection, but Wyoming’s modest success this season had more to do with their ninth ranked defense than their 105th ranked Josh Allen led offense.
Many NFL coaches truly believe they can rein in Allen’s loose cannon while squeezing every last ounce of talent from his arm, but why would you pass up on proven prospects to take a player who never particularly excelled against lesser college adversaries? Of course, we won’t know how well he’ll perform until he sets foot on an NFL field, but at the moment he looks closer to being the next Blake Bortles than the next Carson Wentz.
It’s not that Bortles is terrible, it’s just hard to win in the NFL when you constantly have to adapt your playbook to mask your the flaws and inconsistencies of your franchise quarterback. The Jacksonville Jaguars wouldn’t admit their frustration with Bortles limitations if you handed them a million bucks, but if you offered them a better option at quarterback, I bet they’d start talking. I have nothing against the Jags signal caller, this is simply a word of caution for those willing to bet their jobs on an unknown commodity.
