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NFL writer compares Bills QB Josh Allen to Daniel Jones in asinine claim

People continue to create new narratives to discredit Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen.

Kyle Silagyi

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The belief that Buffalo Bills signal-caller Josh Allen is not the caliber of player that all available evidence and context suggests that he is can perhaps be described as the cockroach of NFL narratives, as it just won’t die.

He’s simply a stellar quarterback. His combination of arm talent, size, agility, and physicality is one we haven’t seen many times in NFL history. He’s earned MVP votes in three of the last four seasons, and he’s the only human being in league history to total over 40 touchdowns in four consecutive campaigns. He’s an incredibly rare player, and yet, there’s a contingent of football fans, pundits, and players who refuse to acknowledge his excellence and discredit him at every turn.

The narrative has (rightfully) quieted some as Allen’s dominance has become more sustained, but there’s still a niche that questions the passer’s ability; this became apparent over the offseason when an anonymous poll of over 100 NFL players voted Allen as the league’s most overrated quarterback. Some just refuse to recognize that Allen is among the league’s elite, and though CBS Sports writer John Breech wasn’t as ignorant as some in a recent NFL Week 8 picks article, he penned a claim about the quarterback that’s one of the more asinine in recent memory.

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Breech picked the Seattle Seahawks to defeat the Bills in their upcoming Week 8 clash, which is a perfectly reasonable opinion; the Seahawks are currently leading the NFC West and are set to play in front of the raucous Lumen Field faithful. It’s Breech’s analysis that gets a bit wonky, however; he focuses on the fact that Allen, who he, to his credit, describes as “one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL,” has not thrown an interception this season, a feat that he believes will be spurned this weekend because the Buffalo passer apparently cannot play on the road.

“Unfortunately for Allen and the Bills, I think this streak is going to come to a crashing end in Seattle,” Breech wrote. “Although Allen has looked like an MVP candidate in Buffalo's home games, he's looked like Daniel Jones when Buffalo plays on the road. He's the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of NFL quarterbacks.”

The writer notes that Allen is 3-0 at home this year compared to 2-2 on the road, an apparently horrific dichotomy that’s enough to liken him to not only a character that sparks fear in thousands, but also Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Josh Alle
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“Allen had arguably the worst game of his career in Week 5 when he completed just 9 of 30 passes for 131 yards in a loss to the Texans, and in news that won't surprise anyone, that one came on the road,” Breech wrote. “If this game were in Buffalo, I'd probably pick the Bills by double digits, but since it's in Seattle, I'm rolling with the Seahawks.”

Breech, in a vacuum, is correct; Allen has played comparatively worse on the road this season than he has at home. It is, however, a bit ignorant to wilfully overlook the context of the team’s road losses and simply pin the blame on the quarterback because it fits a narrative. Allen’s receivers simply weren’t getting open in Buffalo’s Week 4 loss to the Baltimore Ravens and Week 5 defeat at the hands of the Houston Texans; he often had nowhere to go with the ball, and when separation was created, whether or not the pass would be completed was a crapshoot, as the Bills’ pass-catchers combined for four drops over the two-game stretch. He completed just four passes to wide receivers in Week 5, something that prompted the team to swing a trade for five-time Pro Bowler Amari Cooper just over a week later to give Allen somebody he could trust in the receiving corps.

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Allen’s offensive line also struggled in both road losses, allowing 12 pressures in Week 4 and 11 in Week 5 as the quarterback was often running for his life. Did Allen play his best football in these games? Absolutely not, and nobody is claiming he did; however, there’s context that goes into these stat lines, information that reasonably leads one to a different conclusion than ‘Allen turns into Daniel Jones on the road.’

Breech also neglects to mention Allen’s 107.1 passer rating Week 2 outing and three touchdown Week 6 performance, both of which came on the road. He also ignores the fact that his stats were nearly identical at home and on the road last season and have, at times in his career, actually been better away from Highmark Stadium than in Orchard Park. Allen’s stats, sure, haven’t been stellar away from home this year, but Breech is cherry-picking numbers devoid of context to fuel a narrative that’s simply unfounded.

Is it possible that Allen struggles in Seattle this Sunday and throws an interception or two? Sure, anything is possible; it's just a bit tiresome to consistently see new narratives created to question the passer’s ability, even if they’re discredited with just a few minutes of research.

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Kyle Silagyi
KYLE SILAGYI

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