Buffalo Bills: Things we know during this minimally exciting week

Minicamp and OTAs are over for the Buffalo Bills; now we have to wait six weeks for training camp. Cue the speculation.

Cannon for an arm. Check. Freakish athleticism. Check. Tall. Yes. Large Hands. Yep. These are sanguine attributes Buffalo Bills’ Josh Allen has that are valued incredibly when searching for a franchise quarterback.

He had these facets in surplus when the Bills were scouting him quite a bit before last years draft. He had those traits before and after all of the exposure we witnessed through playing last season. This is all data that went into him being high on so many teams draft boards.

Allen was coming from Wyoming; not an Alabama-type. He was inconsistent against lower end teams that Wyoming faced on the schedule. His accuracy was a concern in college and continued to be during all of the pre-draft workouts and scouting. His accuracy issues were still apparent that it needed work, even as he played both before his injury and after the injury in his NFL rookie season.

In addition to the off the chart physical characteristics, other intangibles went into driving the Bills to utilize their draft-capital to trade up to and secure their QB of the future. Leadership and decision making, as well as attitude, likability, coach-ability, were all part of the Bills evaluation of Allen. They claim to have learned as much about what kind of person he is as they did in how far he could throw the ball while on his knees.

The Bills maintained that he was supposed to sit the entire year and not be rushed to play during his rookie season —  I don’t buy into that.

You would not enter the season with only two quarterbacks — including the rookie — if you believed that. The other, Nathan Peterman, was an unproven low draft pick from the previous year; which when given a chance to start, embarrassed himself and the coaching staff with one of the worst displays of quarterbacking in NFL history.  They then traded away A.J. McCarron, who was the best shot at having three signal-callers. However, I understand they wanted him taking second quarterback reps and not third.

Putting an unproven, low draft pick QB who already fell on his face the previous season as the starter in front of Allen was risky in many ways.  Injuries alone would have had me handled the staffing much more cautious.  Peterman, like any quarterback, was one play away from a bad ankle, injured knee or various other regular injuries throughout the NFL season that plague quarterback.

Then you put injury aside and consider the disastrous small resume Peterman built the previous season. The resume constructed of one game he played partially before losing his starting position back to Tyrod Taylor. Peterman threw five interceptions in one half. I repeat, one half.

The draft experts either loved or hated Allen as a high pick.  Some had him going No. 1 overall, and others said he deserved to be selected much farther down. Many loved his upside; others were not sold on him being able to use that physical skill set against NFL defenses.  The theory was that NFL game-plans plus the speed and athleticism of the defenders would just end the Allen experiment before it ever started.

I disagree with them more so now after witnessing him progress last season. We have seen quarterbacks with so much athleticism and arm strength, who were either too inconsistent with accuracy, or could never mentally make right decisions in a split second as 300-pound athletic men were trying to crush them.

I was mirthful Allen got to play before his injury due to Peterman’s repeat disaster starting attempt.  It was captivating as Allen got to do a walk through each week simulating being the starter shadowing then-newly signed Derek Anderson. Allen was basically acting as if he was starting going through all of the routines, but actually sitting and watching and reevaluating — all of this while healing completely.

Anyways, here are some things we know about the Buffalo Bills this week:

• Former Bills’ practice squad tight end Keith Towbridge was claimed and rewarded to the Bills off of waivers. He signed with the Titans after playing for the Atlanta Legends of the Alliance American League before the league folding. Welcome home mate.
• Rookie tight end Dawson Knox inked his rookie contract officially making him a Buffalo Bill. He was the hindmost member of this year’s Bill’s draft class to sign a rookie accord.
• Local legend Jim Kelly claims he has sat with Bills OC Brian Daboll and QB coach Ken Dorsey to chat about the development of Josh Allen and the “K-Gun” offense Kelly ran while playing his way to the Hall of Fame.

P.S. How does one come up with the nickname A.J from Raymond Anthony? Ya, you McCarron?  Sounds a bit better than R.A? Had a bad experience as a dorm room hall monitor in college? RA?  Were you that guy who would blow the horn on a group of young men smuggling kegs of Milwaukee’s Best Ice in a hockey bag through a recreation area window. The economy friendly American Pale lager AKA “The Beast.” Things that make you go hmmm…