Buffalo Bills: Josh Allen is no Captain Checkdown according to PFF

According to Pro Football Focus, Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen checked down the least among quarterbacks over the past two seasons.

The Buffalo Bills have had their fair share of ‘Captain Checkdowns’ over the years from Trent Edwards to recently Tyrod Taylor. However, their current quarterback, Josh Allen, is the exact opposite, almost to a fault.

Recently, Pro Football Focus looked at the quarterbacks who checkdown the most and least over the past two seasons. During that time, Allen has the least with only 20 checkdowns on 880 attempts at a Checkdown percentage of 2.3%.

"While the highest checkdown rates belong to a collection of questionable passers with the occasional exception, the list of lowest rates is a more interesting distribution. Josh Allen leads the way (2.3%) and Mitchell Trubisky is in third (3.5%), but they sandwich the best passer in the game in Patrick Mahomes (3.3%). This end of the list seems to contain both players whose fatal flaw is lacking the filter that tells them when to live to fight another day and those whose calling card is big plays in key moments."

The article went on to look at the quarterbacks who checkdown on third down and Allen once again has done that the least with only one in 128 pass attempts for a remarkable 0.4% checkdown percentage.

"On the low-end of the third-down list, Josh Allen once again has the lowest checkdown rate in the league. Over two seasons, he has thrown just one checkdown on third downs, maintaining a pathological determination not to let the play die. That checkdown didn’t come until 3.24 seconds into the play. About 63% of his throws on third down were past the first down marker, the fifth-highest rate in the league, but that aggressive nature has generated seven interceptions and one of the highest turnover-worthy play rates in the league (7.4%, seventh-highest)."

There is certainly some validity to the point made by Sam Morson that Josh Allen does have a tendency to play ‘hero ball’ which sometimes works out but more likely than not results in a negative play.

This was something that was more prevalent as a rookie and improved as the season went on. However, this is one area that if he is able to improve can really help elevate his game this coming season.

The fact that the Bills now have some good pass catching running backs in Devin Singletary and Zack Moss who if they get the ball in their hands can pick up chunks of yards quickly. If Allen were to check the ball down slightly more this can help keep the offense ahead of the chains or even extend drives as there is a better likelihood.

The last thing Buffalo Bills fans would want to see is a full return of Captain Checkdown but it might not be the worst thing to see Josh Allen take that role on occasion.