Hindsight has perhaps never looked so good for the Buffalo Bills.
At the 2019 NFL draft, Buffalo selected a raw quarterback prospect with their top-overall pick from a little school in Wyoming: Josh Allen.
Fast forward to today and that sentence has much different meaning than it once did. In that year’s first round, five quarterbacks were taken and only two of those remain with their original team.
Allen is one of them.
On Wednesday, a massive trade went down in the NFL. It’s always of that caliber when a No. 1 overall selection is traded and that’s exactly what happened with Baker Mayfield.
The Cleveland Browns traded him to the Carolina Panthers. The Browns received a fifth-round pick and will split finances of Mayfield’s contract with the Panthers to round out the deal.
Mayfield and Allen, who was taken No. 7 overall, were two of five total quarterbacks taken in the first round of that year’s draft. It was a highly-anticipated event with all the rumors and hype surrounding the QBs that could go in the first round.
Between Mayfield and Allen, Sam Darnold was selected third overall by the New York Jets. Darnold, like Mayfield, was traded to Carolina for draft picks and the two are now teammates.
The fourth off the board was Josh Rosen at 10. He’s currently a free agent.
And then there was Lamar Jackson. The Baltimore Ravens made him the final selection of 2019’s first round. He went at No. 32 overall.
There is one little thing that makes Allen standout above all else: Of all five QBs from his draft class, he’s the only one to sign a contract extension with his original team.
Jackson is working on one with the Ravens but has yet to finalize it.
Hindsight has sincerely been very nice to the Bills.
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