Josh Allen in uniform throwing for the Wyoming Comboys

Bills fans are pretty pumped after breaking a playoff drought that has plagued the franchise ever since they last had made it in 1999. Though only making a wildcard spot in the AFC, followed by a close loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, Bills fans are clearly happy that they just finally saw their team make the playoffs for once! However, Tyrod Taylor really was not a fit with the program at quarterback, so trying out the NFL 2018 Draft for a fresh start at the position seemed like a good idea. With Buffalo’s first overall pick, they secured quarterback Josh Allen from the Wyoming Cowboys. What do his statistics show from college?

1. He did not earn a legitimate start with Wyoming until the 2016 Season.

Josh Allen on the bench in what was a 49-13 loss to the Oregon Ducks in the 2017 season.

For a now starting NFL QB not to get a starting role in Wyoming until his junior year, is like saying my high school baseball team cut me my first two years, and then I did so great my second year that I got to start that year, the next year, and earn a bid into the MLB drafting process. It is plain and simple, that is not how the process of professional sports is supposed to work. If he had more experience in college, and kept good standings over those years as well, it would frame him in a much more reasonable light as to where he should stand for being drafted by a NFL team.

2. He had a consistently poor completion rate.

Josh Allen had a struggle to complete just over half of his passes starting with Wyoming.

In 2016, he completed 56% of all of his passes, and in 2017 did nothing to impress by completing 56.3% of his passes. I will admit that it is way more reliable and intelligent to draft a QB who has consistent stats from college. However, having around 56% of his passes completed, he had the lowest completion rate of all first round QB draft selections. Not only was there lots of other QB picks the first round (5 including Allen), Allen had the worst combined defensive opponents in college than all of them as well.

3. He had a very good record of total touchdowns scored.
With a combination of 44 passing touchdowns, 12 rushing touchdowns and 1 receiving touchdown between his 2016 and 2017 starting years at Wyoming, he has an impressive ability to put points on the board. This can be attributed to his good mobility in the pocket, and the fact that he can also be a reliable as a running quarterback when needed. However, 21 total interceptions between the two seasons still puts emphasis on how detrimental his lack of accuracy might be.

4. His QB rating falls pretty average in the NFL 2018 Draft.                                   It is always comfortable to see that Allen has a QB rating that is similar to the standards of all the other QB picks in round one of the same draft. He had a rating of 144.9 his junior year (2016), and 127.8 his senior year (2017) for an average of 136.35.

Josh Allen displaying jersey in Arlington, Texas after being drafted the seventh pick overall in the NFL 2018 Draft

His preseason stats in the NFL were terribly unimpressive, however, showing he has some adaptation to do for a truly “big boy league” from what he has seen. His best game had him throwing was against the Brown’s week three, with 9 of 13 passes complete for 60 total yards, and a touchdown. He had his highest rating in preseason as well, which was a 104.6. Everything else is downhill, which you can view by clicking on each preseason games passing stats for the Bills here.

On top of all this, keep in mind that the man was playing in a conference I can guarantee half of you reading this article would not even know existed. The Mountain West Division, on the basis of statistics and reputations of the teams combined, is the worst conference to have a selected quarterback for this year’s NFL draft. I definitely think the current hype of Josh Allen is not right, but I think with more experience and effort invested could become an interesting contender in the following years.