A Buffalo Size Mistake

April 26, 2018, with the seventh pick in the NFL draft the Buffalo Bills selected Josh Allen, a quarterback out of Wyoming. This wasn't the mistake the headline refers to. I would never call a player a bust or a mistake when he is being drafted.

The Bills then spent the entire summer having the rookie compete for the starting job against Nathan Peterman and AJ McCarron. Eventually, on September 2, the team named Peterman the starter and traded McCarron, who they had just signed to a two year $10 million deal, to the Oakland Raiders. This put rookie Josh Allen as the second string quarterback heading into the season.

I thought this was the right move: Keep Allen on the bench and have him learn behind Peterman for the majority of the season, if not the whole year. The Bills were going to be bad this year anyways; you don't want your young quarterback to sit there taking a beating in game and losing.

The problem is that in week one Nathan Peterman went out against the Ravens and completed only 5 of his 18 passes for just 24 yards and threw two interceptions. With the Bills losing to the Ravens 40–0, the benched Peterman and threw Allen into the game. Allen proceeded to just 6 of his 15 passes for 74 yards as the team ended up losing 47–3.

Now I understand they were losing and had no chance of coming back and winning so they switched quarterbacks so both would get some playing time. My problem is that they then announced that going forward Josh Allen is now the starting quarterback.

This I believe could potentially hurt the rookie's career in the long run. If he goes out there and starts the remainder of the season and they potentially finish with a record between 2–14 or 4–12 at best, his confidence could be shattered and they would be looking for a new quarterback all over again.

Quarterbacks sitting their rookie year isn't a mistake. Both Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers sat on the bench their rookie years and are now considered the two best quarterbacks playing today. According to the Ringer.com the success rate of quarterbacks is about 50%. Throwing a young quarterback into the starting lineup before he is ready makes them more likely to fail.

Since Jim Kelly retired before the 1997 season, the Bills have had 16 different starting quarterbacks. Josh Allen will be number 17. Of the 16, only Tyrod Taylor and Doug Flutie are the only ones with winning records as starters. Two of the previous starters had been first-round picks like Allen. EJ Manuel and J.P. Losman both failed to live up to expectations and found themselves out of the league before long.

Josh Allen is 6'5'' and weighs 238 pounds, he's big enough to throw in the strong winds of northern New York, but he played in the Mountain West Conference in college and didn't exactly put up impressive numbers and his team wasn't competing against the best colleges in the nation. Sitting for the year, letting the team be bad, and then counting to build through the draft around Allen would've been the better strategy. He would have a full year to learn the offense while avoiding the beatings and losses that he will now be enduring as the starter.

Only time will tell. I could be wrong and the Bills could potentially end up back in the playoffs in back to back seasons. I would be happy if that happened and Josh Allen's career isn't wasted. The NFL is a tricky thing and sometimes hard to predict.

Thank you for reading and please share.