Buffalo Bills: Providing context for Josh Allen’s second season

While it wasn’t a perfect season for Josh Allen, providing context would be helpful for the Buffalo Bills starting quarterback.

Josh Allen certainly was not perfect his second season. He did not play a full solid game in the Buffalo Bills’ playoff loss to Houston.

Keep in mind that according to “The Process” Josh Allen was raw talent that was to sit and observe his entire rookie season. That would make this past season his first season actually playing.

If said suggested process was 100 percent the plan,  I would not think they would have traded away A. J. McCarron. I would not think an unproven quarterback with only a couple NFL starts on his resume in which were horribly unsuccessful, Nate Peterman , would be the only QB on the opening day roster in front of Allen. They had to have known Allen would see action as the number two quarterback.

Even if Peterman totally played the complete opposite in Year Two and actually resembled an NFL quarterback which would be very large task, staying healthy for 16 games is a second large task to being competent. The decisions regarding Peterman certainly still are questionable at best.

If he had been a big-armed-stud in college with huge projections for an NFL career, maybe naming him the starter and mentor to Allen would have made a little sense. My opinion would be no quarterback with only a couple bad starts under his belt should be the only QB on the roster in front of your quarterback of the future. The offense had absolutely zero weapons for Josh Allen in his first year. The running game disappeared, the line was dismal and the only positive as far as who to throw to came late in the season with Robert Foster.

Even if hypothetically speaking the Buffalo Bills had the very durable gunslinger, Brett Favre, in his final season, it wouldn’t make sense to have Josh Allen as the team’s second string QB, but rather have him be the third stringer and really have a chance to watch and learn.

Many will argue that a third string position would not get him the reps he would need in practice, which is a valid point. However, with Josh Allen getting some solid playing time in during his rookie season he shwed he was very coachable.

Allen’s injury and healing behind Derick Anderson worked wonders. He looked like a different player from his first stint as the starter to his second when he returned from the injury.

It is hard to buy into the idea that McDermott and Beane were thinking that after trading McCarron away, leaving Peterman as the only obstacle between Allen and starting, was really believed to be a solid plan. Even if Peterman played mediocre and stayed healthy, he is was obviously not someone you want your franchise guy learning from.

Josh Allen certainly improved from Year One to Year Two. He improved in areas just from the first quarter of his second season. That is impressive considering the team was 3-1 at that point and he improved. The first three games that they won, he looked like he was going to struggle all season throwing picks. Well after the loss to the Pats where they really kept him confused chasing his tail often, he buttoned up his trending interception struggles.

He had games that we needed to see like on Thanksgiving against the Cowboys. Games where he was mostly sharp on his game all day long. Short and intermediate passes improved significantly from his rookie season, as well as timing passes.

He certainly improved sliding and minimizing potentially dangerous injury caused by his style of running with the ball. He was not automatically taking off for a jog when a little pressure occurred. I know at times this season I was yelling at the TV for him to actually utilize his running talents in situations where maybe it would have resulted in keeping the offense the field.

Donovan McNabb made the Pro Bowl in his second NFL season tossing 21 touchdown passes accumulating 3365 yards through the air. He also ran for over 600 yards and six touchdowns for 27 total touchdowns.

Russell Wilson won a Super Bowl in his second season of what has become an amazing career. He threw for 3,357 and 26 touchdown and rushed for 539 yards and one more touchdown for a total of 27 touchdowns.

Meanwhile, Josh Allen this past year threw for 20 touchdowns and 3,089 yards in his second season with the Buffalo Bills. He ran for 510 yards, with another nine touchdowns on the ground for total of 29 touchdowns.

I am ready to see Josh Allen make the next jump and aggrandize his career. With all of his physical tools, if he continues to make the mental upgrades, the sky is the limit.