After his uninspired performance against the New York Jets on Monday Night Football, the lesser tendencies of Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen have come into focus for NFL analysts.
While Allen is one of the more talented and successful quarterbacks in recent NFL seasons, his three-interception performance against a stingy Jets defense has earned him understandable criticism for his cavalier style of play.
While talking with FanDuel’s Kay Adams on her daily program, ESPN analyst and former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky nailed down what he feels are on-field maturity issues with Allen’s decision-making and quarterback mechanics.
It’s a pretty harsh take from Orlovsky, who actually seems to be right on the money with what’s holding the star quarterback behind some of his peers.
“I love Josh; I’m a huge fan of the person as well,” Orlovsky shared. “Last night is one of those games where you sit there and you watch it with them. If I was his coach and I would look him dead in the eye and go, ‘Bud, we’ve got to grow up. Like, we’ve got to grow up, man. We can’t have this conversation all the time about… When Aaron Rodgers goes down, there’s one chance, one way they lose that football game, and for $250 million dollars, it can’t be because of you, dude.”
Here’s a breakdown of Josh Allen’s night by the insightful @danorlovsky7 :pic.twitter.com/9akrt2DXxv
— Kay Adams (@heykayadams) September 12, 2023
Orlovsky’s critiques focus squarely on what he sees as Allen’s erratic style of play that takes away from the fundamentals of the position and forces far too many bad decisions in the name of trying to make a splash.
“I have seven clips where I [could] describe him as completely out of control; can’t have that,” he continued about Allen. “Your eyes are all over the place, your feet are all over the place, you run before you have to, you’re forcing the football down the field into double coverage again. … This isn’t being a jerk. He’s a grown adult. He makes a ton of money. He’s a great player. We’ve got to grow up.”
These are sharp words from Orlovsky about one of the game’s best players, but they seem to have weight behind them based on how Allen played on Monday night and considering his history with turning over the ball.
If the Bills are serious about pushing for a Super Bowl, it sounds as if Allen might want to heed Orlovsky’s stern advice here about tightening up his style of quarterbacking. Otherwise, Buffalo may never grow into the team it wants to be during Allen’s prime.