The criticism of Josh Allen

[Shaw66]

57 minutes ago, transplantbillsfan said:

 

Shaw, listen to Allen’s PC the other day. In fact, skip to the last few minutes he talks about Joe Brady and what he's excited about.

 

Allen directly says he was coached previously to run. It's revealing. Go listen because it completely contradicts this belief.

Thanks.  I only listened once, but I think he said when he got to Buffalo, he was coached to run.  I don't think he said that's what he was coached to do in the more recent years.   

 

For the past few years, he certainly hasn't played like he was told to run if his first or second read wasn't there.   He was playing out of the pocket for as long as he could.   

[transplantbillsfan]

13 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

Thanks.  I only listened once, but I think he said when he got to Buffalo, he was coached to run.  I don't think he said that's what he was coached to do in the more recent years.   

 

For the past few years, he certainly hasn't played like he was told to run if his first or second read wasn't there.   He was playing out of the pocket for as long as he could.   

 

But he specifically said in his first years (plural) in Buffalo he was coached to run while talking about his excitement of a scheme by Joe Brady to get him more outlets on the field in the passing game. He may not have directly stated he was coached to run in recent years, but at best it sounds like he believed the passing scheme itself didn't provide enough realistic opportunities in the passing game, forcing him to run.

[Shaw66]

6 hours ago, transplantbillsfan said:

 

But he specifically said in his first years (plural) in Buffalo he was coached to run while talking about his excitement of a scheme by Joe Brady to get him more outlets on the field in the passing game. He may not have directly stated he was coached to run in recent years, but at best it sounds like he believed the passing scheme itself didn't provide enough realistic opportunities in the passing game, forcing him to run.

Thanks.   That's interesting.   One thing about Allen is that he tends to speak in generalities, and in this case, as in many others, neither you nor I can be sure precisely what he means.   My take on Allen has been that he is still learning how to process the game and to make high quality decisions, something that both Burrow and Mahomes excel in.  Josh has, in my view, been improving year by year, and I think this season or next we will see the full-fledged star, the guy who can manage the game and also make plays like no one else.   

 

My take, therefore, has been that he's always been presented with relatively complex pro offense to run and that he just hadn't developed the skills to run it.  So, when he wasn't sure what to do, he let his athleticism take over.  The coaches may have been okay with that, because his athleticism was so great that it yielded good results.  (Compare him to EJ Manuel, for example, who when he wasn't sure let his athleticism take over, but who wasn't nearly as talented as Allen.   Pro football moved on from Manuel pretty quickly, but Allen survived because his talent was so great, his coaches have been patient with his execution of the offense.)

 

What you and I don't know is the extent his coaches actually encouraged him to just create when the first or second option wasn't there.  Whatever he did five years ago, I don't think they're encouraging him to do it any more.   I mean, sure, when plays break down, he's going to scramble and create, but I don't think they want him doing that at a higher percentage than Mahomes does.  

 

These are the kind of conversations I would love to sit down and have with Brady or McDermott or Josh, to really understand what they're thinking.  What do they think they need to win?   Maybe even more than the offense, I'd love to hear McDermott about the defense because, frankly, I'm more puzzled about the defensive philosophy than the offense.  That is, the offensive philosophy is, I'm sure, that if the Bills can get five skill players on the field with Allen and get them all to execute, the Bills will have a great offense because Allen gives them one extra skill player compared to virtually every other team.  I think McDermott hoped Edmunds was going to be the X-factor, "we-have-him-and-you-don't" guy, but that didn't work.  What is that McDermott thinks his going to give him a standout defense?