Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen has certainly made some improvements during his second season in the NFL. He has become more comfortable in the intermediate passing game, less likely to force the ball into dangerous situations, and reduced his number of turnovers. His passing yards per game has improved by 38 yards, and his adjusted yards per attempt has increased from 5.4 yards to 6.7 per pass.
These improvements have been a part of the Bills residing on the cusp of a playoff berth.
Nevertheless, there are aspects of his game that still need to be refined if the Buffalo Bills are to make a serious run into the playoffs this year. Their defense has shown itself to be among the league’s best, but the offense will need to increase their production and efficiency if Buffalo has a shot at winning their first playoff game in this millennium. This starts with Allen.
ESPN acknowledged Allen’s improvements over last season, pointing out several aspects of Allen’s game that are still lagging behind:
“When you give Allen time to throw in a clean pocket, he has improved his footwork and decision-making to the point where he can make an accurate pass and take advantage of his athleticism to create throwing windows.”
However, the Wyoming product has struggled to reproduce his success with the deep ball from the 2018 season. During this campaign, Allen is 31st in passer rating on passes traveling further than 20 yards in distance. ESPN highlights this figure is better than only two qualifying quarterbacks: Jared Goff and Kyle Allen. In addition, Josh Allen’s QBR is last among quarterbacks in the NFL.
In addition, Buffalo must find a way to help Allen become more comfortable against blitzes. Whether it’s pre-snap decisions, changes in blocking scheme, or better system of calling audibles at the line, Allen must be more efficient when opponents bring a variety of blitz packages against him. ESPN shares evidence on this front.
“QBR incorporates running and accounts for Allen making plays with his legs against blitzes, but when teams do send extra pressure, he ranks 28th in QBR at 38.4, ahead of only Daniel Jones, Rudolph and Mitchell Trubisky. The Bills starter has the league’s worst completion percentage — 27.2% — when pressured.”
In addition, how Allen handles situations when he breaks out of the pocket and scrambles will need to be addressed. In a copycat league, the Ravens exposed one way to contain Allen. Baltimore used “a second wave of defenders to chase him down as he scrambled.” The Bills signal-caller will need to be cognizant of this as teams work to limit his progress on the ground and throwing on the run.
If Allen can improve up these three aspects of his game, it will undoubtedly give the Bills a better chance at doing something they have not done in 24 years. This is a franchise that is longing for a playoff victory, as a postseason triumph has not happened since 1995. A postseason berth plus a playoff victory will have Allen as a replacement for Jim Kelly as the last quarterback to lead the Bills to a postseason win.
For Buffalo’s offense, it all starts will Allen.
[lawrence-related id=50775,50811,50795]