Ronin

7 months ago this is what our coach said: "I'm confident in every football player on our team and with respect to Nate, it's no different," "Number one I've got to put the right guy out there that I feel is best for our football team," "I understand the fans and that sentiment, but at the same time I have to do what we feel is best for the football team going forward," That was after Peterman had gone 11 for 30 for 85 yards, 1 TD, 4 INTs, and a negative Average Yards-per-Attempt in two games. I have no idea what anyone even saw in him from the onset before he was drafted. Gil Brandt had him in his top-100 draft list. (99th, WAY ahead of others) Gil Brandt said that Manuel was a 1st-round talent. Gil Brandt said that Reggie Ragland was equivalent to David Harris and would [singlehandedly] improve our defense by 7 PPG. Talk is tremendously cheap and the "experts" are no more accurate than anyone else generally speaking. Remember when everyone reacted to Bill Walsh talking about how Trent Edwards would be great. He said the same thing about Rick Mirer back then. The list goes on and on and on.

Nah, I don't think so. If Allen doesn't show improvement this year or next they'll be looking for new jobs and we'll have a whole new coaching staff. No way on earth that McBeane escape if Allen doesn't work out. Not a chance.

Great post! ... and thanks! I agree to an extent, that extent being that yes, his legs will bail him out on occasion, although as stated, or perhaps rather implied in the piece, not like it did in HS and college ball for him. Keep in mind, last season he had the element of surprise in that way and largely enigmatic as such. That circumstance will not exist this season as the element of surprise no longer exists for him. That in and of itself will be significant. But to address your point more directly, the whole point will be to get him to not have to "bail," rather to look for quick outlets and get rid of the ball more quickly than he did last season when his "time to throw" was the greatest in the league. That's a double-edged sword and in our case since our OL wasn't great, I'd strongly suggest that it leans towards that no-so-good side of that double-edge in that the reason why it was so long wasa because he didn't get rid of the ball quickly. If true, the reasons for that can be discussed, but the strongest implication from that is that he isn't getting the ball out quickly, and therefore, unless he had absolutely no receivers open short in the "high percentage pass" zone(s), which is a ridiculous argument, that's going to have to be where he improves, as you imply. Having said that all, "bailing" doesn't help. What will help is forcing him to stay in the pocket until he learns how to and regularly makes those throws. I doh't think that's as easy a task as some may think. In short, his reads need to bail him out, not his legs, if in fact he is to become a franchise QB. I think we're in agreement there. Make sense? I addressed that in a prior post and cited Allen's gamelogs for the three games prior to that last Miami game, games 13, 14, & 15. Go look at them yourself and tell me you see improvement. His numbers were horrific thereby proving that narrative entirely false. If an "eye test" trumps results, well, .... LOL That seems to be the case here. Funny tho, any other time the same people citing an eye test will cite wins as the key/core relevant metric. Funny how that moving bogey always shows up.

Couldn't I have said the same thing? Short answer: Yes Otherwise, when you cite two single QBs as to why an analysis makes no sense, what could the point possibly be other than to imply or otherwise outright suggest that Allen's on the same path? If that's not it then it was a bad approach to whatever point you wanted to make. Don't get upset with me if I use your polemical stategy to counter your own argument in spades. That's the entire crux of my position, namely the Allen's leaning closer to duplicating the performance that laundry list, hardly comprehensive as well, than he is of duplicating the performance of a couple of NFL exceptions on completely differently coached and organized teams. I don't know how it's going to end up, I'm hopeful although clearly not as much as the unicorns/rainbows/lollipops crowd, but that doesn't alter the facts. OK Deja vu from the whole BILL-ieve era comes to mind. How'd that work out for us. (rhetorical)

Jackson didn't turn the ball over at anywhere near the rate which kept the Ravens in games. Oh yeah, he was also 6-1, had over 5 points better in compl. %, was more effective in the Red Zone, averaged about the same TDs/game than Allen did (on fewer yards), and had half the INT%. You can dismiss that. You think that's wise in a comparison? Seems to me all that matters are results, aka wins. At least that's what I've read here often.

Doesn't seem like you really read the piece based on this. It's unfortunate that so many people seem to think that the short-medium game can be all but entirely overlooked in favor of a deep passing game, that frankly, is not the basis for winning games. It almost seems the hard lesson that we Bills fans will learn, as if we haven't had enough hard lessons since the Polian era, if popular opinion is to drive things. I won't disagree with any of that, but again, keep in mind, we're looking at yet another coaching and likely GM change here if Allen flops. That changes everything, or should. Reread maybe. :shrug: Well, let's start here, what have I "made up?" Other than opinions, if you can't find anything then I'd strongly suggest a cease & desist.

That assumes that Allen's issues are his deep game, right? Metcalf is a deep WR, he averaged 22 ypr at Miss this season. As I stated, there's no eviidence that Allen's issues, whether related to himself or the team, are his deep game. So how would getting another deep WR, on top of Brown who everyone claims is a deep-threat, and Foster who averaged 18.5 YPR if I recall correctly over Allen's last 6 games after his return, and the only receiver to have done better with Allen than without, help Allen then? Again, if they can't get Allen playing at least average ball this season from a passing standpoint, they're not going to be around to see the end of whatever their rebuild plan is. Their careers in Buffalo are inescapably tied to how well Allen performs at this point. A great D isn't going to change that.

Yeah, it's too bad that's not what it said tho.

And anyone should care about this why now? Just curious. They do need DL help, IMO badly, but the D wasn't horrendous last season. The point being that it's all going to be moot if Allen doesn't work out. If McD can't get him to at least average NFL levels this season, not even franchise status, the problems are going to start coming fast and furious.

Appreciate the feedback, but this is part of yet another false narrative. Namely that Allen improved. To start, using that week 17 game against Miami, which was literally half of his Red Zone production for the entire season, is poor form. Short of it being an immensely emotionally charged game due to Kyle's retirement, and the fact that Miami came in as flat as they'd been all season, not to mention that they sucked, particularly on D where they are rated 27th in scoring D and 29th in yardage D, it's not a good baseline for steady-state play. But moving on to your statement, in the three games prior to that here are his totals: 51 of 103 (49.5%) for 627 Yards, 2 TDs, 4 INTs, and a rating of 59. 59. That's what improvement looks like? That completion % is worse than his season average and over 4 points worse than it was in his first 6 games. Still think that's improvement? These unchallenged narratives are ridiculous. That last Miami game was literally nearly half of his TD production over the last five games. So unless that single game is the evidence of this improvement, that's a false narrative. Glad that you brought that up tho, it's relevant. LOL You're a mod, dang. Talk about flaming. Hence the start of my post which stated as much, right? Seems to me what's far odder is that people can't seem to take the given advice, ignore the post, not waste THEIR OWN TIME, and move on to something more agreeable for them. Sounds like emotional instability the fact that people such as yourself merely come to criticize the very thing that was courteously warned about. Wouldn't you say eball.

They also look worse than Manuel, worse than Lamar Jackson, about the same as Bortles, worse than Bridgewater, about the same as Tannehill, worse than Tebow, much worse than Mariota, and not much better than Kizer, with the primary difference there being simply INTs although with comparable INT%s, Kizer 4.6%, Allen 3.8%, both bottom-dwelling. So yeah, I see no reason why there would be any concern. LOL I mean seriously, who accepts only a few positive exceptions when making an argument but ignores a sea of areas of concern? Scratch that, I momentarily forgot where I am. LOL Yeah, thanks. Seriously tho, ease up a little as a mod, eh. You should be setting an example, not contributing to flaming.

And you're a moderator, huh. LOL

Where's drafting to where you are as a team in there? That strategy makes perfect sense if you're a playoff team. Otherwise it ignores a whole bunch of stuff.

Changed? LOL Well, OK, we should be all set then, right? Allen on to greatness.

Actually, it isn't that simple. Belief is one thing, results are another. As of now what we essentially have in Allen is a QB that had good passing games against Miami's 27th ranked D, little else. In fact, here are the gamelogs otherwise, let me know which ones you think are average much less better-than-average? Cmp Att % Yards TD INT 18 33 54.6 245 1 2 18 33 54.6 231 2 2 17 26 65.4 224 3 1 20 41 48.8 217 1 2 18 36 50.0 206 0 2 13 26 50.0 204 1 0 15 22 68.2 196 1 0 8 19 42.1 160 1 0 16 33 48.5 151 0 2 10 17 58.8 84 0 0 10 19 52.6 82 0 1 6 15 40.0 74 0 0 Total 169 320 52.8% 2,074 10.0 12.0 Per-Game Avg. -Miami 13 26 51.3% 162 0.5 0.9 Per-Game Avg. All Games 14 27 52.8% 173 0.8 1.0 Am I missing visions of greatness here or something? Seems to me a mountain of a hill to climb. Where am I off? To add some perspective, here are Rosen's passing numbers: Cmp Att % Yards TD INT 4 7 57.1 36 0 1 15 27 55.6 180 1 0 10 25 40.0 170 1 0 21 31 67.7 240 0 1 21 39 53.9 194 1 3 23 40 57.5 252 2 1 22 39 56.4 208 1 2 9 20 45.0 136 3 2 12 19 63.2 105 1 1 11 26 42.3 149 0 0 26 41 63.4 240 0 1 13 22 59.1 132 0 2 12 23 52.2 87 0 0 18 34 52.9 149 1 0 217 393 55.2% 2278 11 14 Per-Game Avg. 16 28 55.2% 163 0.8 1.0 Again, here are the per-game averages: Per-Game Avg. -Miami 13 26 51.3% 162 0.5 0.9 Per-Game Avg. All Games 14 27 52.8% 173 0.8 1.0 Rosen's Per-Game Avg. 16 28 55.2% 163 0.8 1.0 If you ask me, anyone that isn't concerned isn't paying attention. ... unless of course we can play Miami 16 times. Then we're all set. And to be frank, only that second Miami game, the emotionally charged one where Miami seemed to not even show up on top of sucking generally speaking, the other game wasn't even great, just good. Either way, which of the non-Miami games do you think were good and something to be encouraged by looking forward in the passing department? Otherwise, I thought all that mattered was wins, no?

I'd say two sentences, but yeah, that pretty much sums up forum mentalities perfectly. Nicely done! Of course then you have the same people complaining that you didn't substantiate your position. You can't make that stuff up.

I thought I explained that in the first sentence. [This is a long read, so most you should simply ignore it. A handful will appreciate it if not enjoy it. You know who you are.] Hmmm, why am I shocked and stunned, NOT, that so many people what, ignored it, can't comprehend it, agree with it but for some inexplicable reason are impelled to comment on it, etc.? LOL Great study in human nature and particularly forum behavior. It's good humor tho. As I said, part of my intent in posting it was to increase my ignore list tremendously. This makes that task simple. Well, we'll find out this season if it was bombastic, won't we. Thanks for reading it! Great pic BTW!! LOL Love it! You're intelligent, right? Is that what I said?

Like I plainly stated, repeatedly, if Allen doesn't make leaps and bounds in progress we're looking at a new HC and GM. So much for Allen then. No one wants to see that. Defense ain't going to correct that. This is going to be a very telling and interesting season and an epiphany for a lot of people if you ask me.

From a moderator no less. Apparently you didn't bother to even read the first sentence either, huh.

LOL @ Unicorn flatulence! Fully appreciate the sense of humor. This draft is quite solid with OL-men. As well, very good blocking TEs can easily be had on day-3. We really don't need a receiving TE more than Allen needs time. As it goes, if you don't make optimal use of the weapons that you have, new ones won't be as effective as they're supposed to be either. If I were them I'd try to build the modern equivalent of The Hogs around Allen. Won't happen in one season, and he may not need it if he can correct his tendencies, but the more options they have the better the odds that the OL will be better and more effective. Wouldn't you agree? Resting upon what we have, which is hardly a group of above-average OL-men with a history of starting effectively, and despite a plethora of mid-grade options there, isn't likely to produce anything close to that. Also, keep in mind that chemistry along the OL takes more time to develop than chemistry anywhere else on the team. By my observances over decades, it takes an OL a good 6-8 weeks to gel with one another. The more and better long-term options we have bode better for chemistry as such. These two-year contracts hardly scream out confidence in that way and strongly suggest at least something about the caliber of players signed. Nope, not possible. Apparently you didn't get past even that first sentence however. This is my way of sorting out whom I put on ignore. As a matter of fact, yes.

[This is a long read, so most you should simply ignore it. A handful will appreciate it if not enjoy it. You know who you are.] So what do the Bills do in the Draft, in particular in the first three rounds where they’re the likeliest to land starters for the immediate season? There are several schools of thought here. First is that the defense needs to be addressed in the 1st-round. The narrative is that the Bills had the 2nd-ranked defense, true, however in yardage D only. In scoring D we ranked 18th and in Red Zone D we ranked 30th according to NFL.com’s Next-Gen Stats. Other positives related to the defense include a 2nd ranking in Net Yards per Pass, 7th in INTs, 7th in Opposing Drives Resulting in Scores, 10th in Yards-per-Carry Against, 8th in Turnover Generation, 3rd in Yards-per-Play against, a 1st-Ranking in Stuffed Running Plays, among others. Raising eyebrows are a 15th ranking in TD% allowed, a 26th ranking in Sacks generated, particularly considering that over half of the team’s 36 sacks, 18.5, were logged by Lorax, Hughes, and Kyle, Kyle now retired with the other two in their back-nine and Lorax likely in his last season, a 24th rank in “2nd-Level Yards” according to ProFootball Outsiders, and a 13th rank in Open Field Yards. The big concern there is the lack of youthful proven pass-rushers. There was some ill-placed hope that Lawson in his third season would blossom but that never materialized as such. He and Murphy were useful in that regard but hardly dominant with both players presenting about average with little basis for further hope. Players like that are typically depth players on playoff competitive teams. Here is the issue for McBeane, they have now inextricably hitched the wagon for their success to Allen. As such they need to elevate the play of the offense, and Allen in particular, to at least average levels this season. Failure to do so will begin the onslaught of criticism that will simply make their jobs more difficult, and frankly, if in their third season they can’t generate at least an average offense, including an average passing game/QB, then it certainly becomes questionable, at minimum, as to whether or not they know what they’re doing. So how do they elevate an offense that was ranked … 30th in Points Scored, ahead of only Jacksonville and Arizona; 30th in Yardage Offense ahead of only Miami and Arizona; 31st in Yards-per-Play ahead of only Arizona; 30th in Red Zone production; 30th in Team Turnovers lost ahead of only Tampa and San Fran and which included a rate of turnovers by Allen of over 1/game; 27th in 1st-down generation; 31st in Net Yards-per-Attempt ahead of only Arizona; 25th in Rushing Yards-per-Carry, Dead Last by a statistical country mile w/o Allen’s rushing contribution; 29th in Turnover %; 30th in Offensive Drives Resulting in Offensive Scores; 31st in Passing Yards ahead of only Arizona; 32nd in Passing TDs; 31st in Passing 1st-Downs ahead of only Arizona. These things all rest in the fact that the team was ranked perfectly average in Time-of-Possession and Plays run from Scrimmage, which bodes poorly. In short, they had the ball for an average amount of time and for an average number of possessions, but as can be seen, produced all but bottom-dwelling results. McBeane are not in a position to be able to play-for-one-season only, they must build for the future. The defense has a number of players that should be an integral part of the future, Edmunds, Milano, White, Hyde, Poyer, Johnson, and Neal. While secondary-heavy there is talent there. Where there is no talent despite a narrative that blares out “winning the offseason” again, the fact is that there is no known RB on the roster for the future. There is no proven dominant WR on the team for the future. There are hopefuls in Foster, Brown, Beasley, and for some in clinging to Jones, but hardly anything proven. Of those four, Cinderella hopeful Foster is arguably the best prospect for attaining such a status. He will be faced with tougher coverages this season however as such given that he may be considered the team’s #1 WR. Either way he has much to prove. Allen favored him upon his return from injury when Foster produced at a 16-game rate of 58 catches for 1,084 Yards and 8 TDs on a YPR of 18.5 and a Catch% of a solid 71.0%. If he can produce that this coming season it would be quite good. He was approximately a third of Allen's passing yardage and TDs in those last 8 games. McCoy did far less on average than he has in the past under Allen. His biggest and only notable receiving game was with Anderson under center. Croom played approximately the same all season despite who was under center. Benjamin averaged 2.5 catches and 39 yards w/o Allen and 1.3 catches for 20 yards under Allen. Jones averaged 5.25 catches for 48 YPG w/o Allen and 3 catches for 38 YPG w/ Allen. Ivory averaged 2.3 catches for 18 yards w/o Allen and 1/2 a catch for 12 yards with Allen. Given that Foster and his 18.5 YPR were Allen's favorite target, there is no debate that Allen's preference is the deep ball and it fits the narrative as well. Otherwise, of the four primary WRs, in 15 combined seasons of play the best single-season receiving yardage totals are 1,003 by Brown and 833 by Beasley. Next best 715 and otherwise no seasons over 700 yards. Of the same four the average per-player TD production per-season is 3.8. By player it is Brown 4.4; Beasley 3.3, Foster 3, Jones 4.5. None of those rise to the status of average for starting WRs much less above-average. 62 players last season had 5 or more receiving TDs last season. 21 had more than 1,003 receiving yards, Brown's best season and 32 had more than 833 yards, Beasley's best season. 51 had over 700 receiving yards. Perfectly average among the 64 (2/team) leading receivers was approximately 68 catches for 780 yards and 6 TDs. Among them in 216 games they have a mere combined 11 100-Yard games; Brown (6 in 5 seasons), Foster (3 last season), Beasley (2 in 7 seasons), Jones (0 in 2 seasons). There is no TE for the future on the roster. The outlook on the Offensive Line depends upon whether one is of the rainbows, unicorns, & lollipops persuasion or whether one considers the realities that the OL-men signed are very much of the on-or-about average variety and frankly, not significantly better than what was in inventory. The one that figures to make the greatest impact, yet not without significant risks, is Morse at C. Morse is known for his pass-blocking but equally known for not being a good run-blocker, so there’s that. Otherwise the biggest risk associated with him is that he’s played in just over half of his games the past two seasons due to injury. The Bills could not afford to lose him during the season. In another point-of-note, offensive linemen free agents that have gone on from KC have a reputation for underachievement subsequent to that. Otherwise, Feliciano has largely been a backup on a bad Oakland team; With 16 starts in 5 seasons Nsecke has largely been a depth player also on a poor offensive team; Waddle was a depth OL-man for the Patriots; Long, the only lineman signed with significant experience gets a “below-average” rating from Pro Football Focus, which I’ll defer to since no doubt unlike other forum members I haven’t spent much time watching Long play in Washington, a poor offensive team, in order to confirm his future greatness in Buffalo. Apparently Ryan Groy is apparently no longer for the team, a lineman that received comparable fanfare as the above mentioned upon his arrival in Buffalo. Since it does not appear to be obvious what their plan is other than having put all of their eggs in Allen’s basket, and for whatever their plan is notwithstanding, their top priority should be seeing to it to ensure that Allen’s play rises to at least an average level as NFL starters go this forthcoming season. If they cannot do that then the cries of “project” (at best) will appropriately arise, thereby not doing them any favors going forward. No fan wants to see that. In addressing that the questions at hand are to what extent the offensive problems were related to Allen and to what extent were they related to the rest of the offense, ranging from talent on offense otherwise, play-calling, etc. It is beyond clear however that the play of the offense can essentially only improve. The rainbows, unicorns, and lollipop contingent will insist that few if any of the offensive problems are on Allen and that Allen with even average talent, which is the best that he’ll have this season if all goes as planned at this point in time, he will arise to the aforementioned status and even more, presumably to franchise status. Others realize that a good chunk of the offense’s woes are in fact attributable to Allen. There is no need to belabor that although that’s what will happen in this thread. It is one or the other, there is no debate. It should be obvious to a blind man that the biggest gains in terms of rendering this team competitive at the ultimate levels will come from improving the offense, not the defense at this point in time. But again, if McBeane fail to make those strides on offense and starting with Allen, which is where it will have to begin, and for whatever the reasons actually are and being irrelevant for purposes of their status, then they will not be long for this team. If that happens then the team enters the lease-extensions years in a state that would only lead to despair. Allen is arguably the team's biggest draftee since Kelly. Having said that, the priority must be getting Allen up to the status of above-average immediately, and thereafter to franchise status. That will not happen if the team expends day 1 & 2 draft resources on defense. Without getting into details, it can strongly be suggested that a good chunk of the offense’s problems fall back onto Allen’s passing game, more specifically the mental part of the game, which is tremendously difficult to coach up. This was tried for one simple issue in Bledsoe, namely his getting rid of the ball quickly, using timers, buzzers, etc., and yet it failed miserably, and Bledsoe was a very seasoned and experienced QB by then with a much more impressive collegiate resume and comparably strong-arm. It stands to reason that the team, McBeane, would go out of their way to protect Allen to every extent possible even if it were possible to install “over-protection” in order to give Allen all the time that he can possibly get in order to process information, aka read the D both pre and post snap. Adding deep-threat WRs is not going to help the problem, it merely feeds it. Allen looks deep primarily. His issues lie within the short-medium game. This explains Allen’s 8th ranking in Yards-per-Completion contrasted with his 32nd (of 33) ranking in Adj. Yards-per-Attempt, Net Yards-per-Attempt, and Adj Net Yards-per-Attempt. It is the only explanation. It also explains perhaps in a cart/horse manner his low completion percentage or visa versa. While perhaps room for improvement, Allen’s deep game is hardly the thing that needs the greatest improvement. Everyone knows that he can heave the ball from OBD to Cleveland. The fact that Foster excelled under Allen with an 18.5 YPR avg. with the other receivers underperforming not only their career/season averages but also putting up better numbers without Allen is evidence of that. The greatest improvement needs to come from finding the open man regardless of where he is on the field. Allen is young, but the problem for him is that he has never had to resort to good reading of defenses in order to excel. His physical prowess has allowed him to be a men among boys in high school football and to a certain extent in a non-Power-5 conference in college. Case in point, he could not even come close to doing so in the three collegiate games he had against Power-5 competition, to the extent that in those games he played worse than undrafted QBs did against Power-5 competition. He had the worst record of performance against Power-5 competition of any draft eligible QB in 2018 with 1 TD, 8 INTs and several more lost fumbles in those three games averaging 142 passing yards and posting a pathetic 23 rushes for 22 yards rushing in those three games, evidence of precisely that. That’s saying something, something which should not be ignored if progress is to be made. He took the league by surprise last season, he will not have that element of surprise this season. Athleticism, scrambling, rushing, and heaving deep have not been enormous issues for him, although one could argue that they were for the team overall given that what have been issues for him have been efficient and consistent passing from the pocket, where he has never excelled. The problem therein is that this is a team sport, not a one-man wrecking crew sport. Efficiency, competence, and particularly consistency involve using all aspects and elements of an offense. This was not done by Allen last season which is where the work lies. How to correct this? How to correct it indeed. The things that will not correct it insofar as the Draft is concerned are drafting defense, obviously, or drafting deep WRs since those will not address correction of the problem. Besides, if John Brown is all that, despite having caught only three TD passes in his career of 5 seasons of longer than 33 yards, which is the existing narrative, then Allen has all the deep threat he needs between Foster and Brown. Allen will need time. Time to correct and improve his defense reading skills and ability to find the open receivers wherever they may be on the field. The only thing that is going to help that is protection. For the rainbows, unicorns, and lollipop contingent that problem has been solved. For everyone else rooted in reality much work can still be done and must be done if Allen is to take those critical steps. He already faces an uphill battle in terms of correcting those as few if any QBs having come into the league without the ability to effectively read a defense have gone on to amount to much, much less to franchise status. If McBeane do not draft to that strategy then they are toying with and risking their own careers and therefore the health and welfare of the team. Regardless of what this team does this and next season, if Allen pans then McBeane cannot be long for the team given the resources they gave up for, remember, “their guy.” This is a marriage, he is “their guy,” they have insisted it be so. As such they will ultimately be graded upon whether or not “their guy” works out. Drafting to not do their best to ensure that this happens is foolish. Here’s to hoping that it works out, but make no mistake, it is hardly a shoe-in and they can ill afford to diminish the chances of Allen working out by drafting defense in round 1. If they do not want to be looking for work after the 2020 season then they absolutely have to focus on correcting Allen’s mentals of the game. This cannot wait. That will not be done by feeding the problem by giving him even more deep-options. That merely enables him to continue to play in a manner that will never foster franchise status. It will be done by forcing him to look short first except on plays specifically designed to go deep, what are called “high percentage plays” for a reason, which often involve recognizing a flaw in coverage on pre-snap reads coupled with that development in post-snap reads. It is Allen's inability or unwillingness, as we will soon find out which, to utilize those "high-percentage passes" that are contributing to his low completion percentage. Unwillingness would be more easily correctable despite the fact that old habits are hard to break. The more that Allen scrambles, runs, or looks deep first without concern for what else is open, is the more that this will not happen. If it doesn’t happen, there will be no significant progress. If there's no significant progress then the team will be without the franchise QB that they so desperately need. Most QBs drafted in round 1 do not come into the league with this handicap. The few that do have not succeeded. McD and the team will simply have to work harder at QB than most other teams if the requisite improvements are to be made. Can they be made? Sure, of course. Will they be made? Depends upon the methodology employed and the success that they can achieve therein. The only certain thing is that if they do not directly attempt to correct terminal errors in Allen’s play, it will never happen. The odds of it happening by chance or accident are nil. Simply relying on “a second year of experience” ain’t gonna cut it without a direct approach to the problem.

You sure about that, taking 3 years to "hit their stride?" Does that apply, in your opinion, to WRs drafted in rounds 1 & 2, or what? Because obviously there's a difference between a 7th-round WR and a 1st or 2nd round one, particularly early in round 2 and one that's taken before another like Smith-Shuster. How do you explain Moore, Ridley, & Sutton, the first and last of those didn't have great QB situations either? Or Callaway, taken in the 4th round, all from last year's draft? How about Smith-Shuster, Kupp, Godwin, or Golladay from 2017? Anomalies, all of them? Well over half of them were drafted after Jones' 37th overall. Just sayin'. It's easy to say something or repeat a narrative, it's more difficult to question it and challenge whether or not it's true or not. In today's NFL, while yes, players often but not always improve, it's not difficult to post great WR numbers as a rookie with a good QB. According to everyone here Allen was quite good with little, if any, cause for concern over his future. So obviously it can't be Allen. Also, how does Jones' catch%, which you realize is bottom-dwelling, right, factor in, particularly since it was horrific, as in DFL in the NFL horrific, with Allen throwing the ball? 43%. Is there a reason to suspect that that catch% will increase this season under similar circumstances? If so, why, specifically? He may lead the team, who knows, but with Beasley, a much more polished receiver, along with Brown and Foster, I'm thinking it's not likely. Looking forward to your analysis per above. Then why are you responding? I mean does what you just wrote have any relevance? :shrug:

Then supply it. It's 2019, stats are available online like whores are in Vegas.

Here, I'll spoon feed you one; https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2018/passing.htm#passing::26 Allen ranked 32nd (of 33) in Adjusted YPA. Does that strike you as odd? Why or why not? (HINT: What's the narrative on Allen? How does one reconcile that narrative with that fact?) In your world is it cause for any concern, or do you view that as insignificant? Again, this is just one, but let's start there. I'll wager you won't take that on directly. You'll divert the reasons for it or some other nonsense, but I'll defer and give you the opportunity anyway. BTW, people have compared Newton to Allen, but Newton in his rookie season was ranked 14th there. In Allen's place were Ponder, Gabbert, Painter, Skelton, McCoy, and Bradford. Manuel started better in that regard.

It's even more weird ignoring a wealth of data on the topic that's most relevant while dwelling something that's incredibly less relevant, wouldn't you say? It's also very weird that few people, AHEM, actually deal with facts & numbers most relevant when arguing against something, again, wouldn't you say? See AlphaDog's post above in response to the litany of essentially DFL stats I put up. I get it, y'all think that Allen's a shoe-in for franchise status. I do, I get it. Just not seeing it based upon the work he'd have to do to get himself there. For example, let's deal with something concrete. What are your thoughts on his status per those stats several posts above, the ones that Alpha complained about but didn't address? Do you think that ANY are relevant? All are the fault of anyone but Allen? What? And don't believe me, look at his stats yourself.