Josh Allen - 2018 NFL Draft Scouting Report

Last week, I started off the 2018 scouting reports with Josh Rosen of UCLA, so this week I figured I would keep the Josh Train going and head north to Wyoming to look at Josh Allen. I will admit that going into this that I already had a bias against Allen. It seems like people are coming up with excuses on why his on-field play should not matter as much as the tools, because the guy looks like an ideal quarterback.

But one of my skills is having an open mind. I assumed that Mitch Trubisky sucked, and then I watched him play, my jaw hit the floor, and I begged and pleaded for the Bears to take him. Apparently I begged too much as they traded a whole lot to have that opportunity when they could have just stayed at three. So the question becomes, will Josh Allen's play change my mind? To find out, I took a look at his 2018 games against Colorado State, Utah State, Central Michigan, and Iowa.

The first thing that jumps off the screen is that the rumors of his arm strength are very real. The guy has a cannon.

I'm not sure if I have ever seen more of a rocket pass in my life. That thing is an absolute rope. Honestly, if you want to advocate for Josh Allen, just show somebody the first quarter of the Central Michigan game. It's incredible and shows all of his good qualities while hiding his weaknesses.

He also does have the ability to put some touch on the ball, as he shows with this throw.

I'm not sure if the pump fake did anything, but it looked cool. But this was one of his most impressive throws as accuracy and touch are some of the big question marks with Allen.

When he has a clean pocket, he has the ability to move through progressions.

But when the pocket isn't as clean, he gets uncomfortable quickly, and his first instinct is to bail.

Since he bailed and threw off his back foot, he couldn't put any mustard on the ball and gave Josh Jackson his first interception of what would be an incredible year for the Iowa cornerback.

Speaking of embarrassing interceptions, here is an intercepted screen pass.

Again, he throws off his back foot and throws it three yards short of his intended target. I thought that would be the worst one, but it's not even close compared to this last one.

Because he was, yet again, throwing off his back foot, he couldn't manage to throw the ball out of bounds and managed to throw an interception while throwing the ball away. That's beyond embarrassing.

These issues weren't just caused by an inability to deal with pressure. Even in a clean pocket here, he just fails to set his feet and sails the throw on the deep pass.

And this is why he struggles with inaccuracy. I do think he deserves a little leeway when it comes to completion percentage because the surrounding talent at Wyoming was not the most impressive in the nation, but shitty mechanics lead to shitty results.

Athletically, he's not special, but the thing that stands out most about him running is he takes so many unnecessary hits. I couldn't believe how many times he was running along the sideline and dropped his shoulder instead of just running out of bounds. If he was a running back, I'd love the toughness, but he's a quarterback, and the most important ability is availability. They had a lot more designed runs than seemed necessary or beneficial.

I will say he does a hell of a job staying up on first contact in the pocket, as he was able to spin out of a lot of sacks. It mostly just gave him enough time to get rid of the ball, but as a football expert, I know that not losing yards is better than losing yards.

Summary
So, in the end, what do you have? You have a beautiful frame for a quarterback, with a rocket arm, solid athleticism, but considering the shit footwork, he has no idea how to use it. There will be many front offices that agree with that assessment but think that as long as they can clean up the footwork, they'll have a hell of a quarterback. But if it was so easy to clean up that footwork, why didn't a coach already do it? Add on to that the fact that he has a complete inability to deal with the slightest bit of pressure, you are praying for a miracle when drafting Josh Allen. Josh Allen is a blueprint for what a quarterback should look like, but he is also the blueprint of a quarterback who fails to impress at the professional level. Some team is going to watch that first quarter of Wyoming's bowl game and that tunnel vision will help them ignore every red flag along the way. If I was a fan of a team that needs a quarterback, I would be sick to my stomach come draft day. As a Bears fan, I don't have much to smile about; at least I can smile about that.

2018 Scouting Reports
Josh Rosen - Quarterback - UCLA