Josh Allen was the third of five QBs drafted in the first round of the stacked 2018 NFL Draft. Seven years on, and four of those guys are still solid NFL starters, if not better. But it didn’t always seem that way. While Allen had one of the slower starts coming out of Wyoming, his Buffalo Bills teammates, including veteran LeSean McCoy, could see his potential very early on.
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Allen won the job in Buffalo quickly. In Week 1, starter Nathan Peterman was benched barely a half into the season, as his two picks contributed to the team going down 40-0 out of the gate against the Baltimore Ravens. They ended up losing 47-3, but Allen finished the game, and he has remained in that starting job ever since. He went 5-7 in that first year, but has led Buffalo in each of the ensuing six seasons.
There was a reason Peterman’s leash was so short: the team was excited about what they had in Allen. He was built like a QB, he could run like the wind, he could throw it a mile, and he could truck a 250-pound linebacker. But most importantly, he had the right attitude towards failure, which he did a lot early on, throwing 12 INTs to 10 TDs as an NFL freshman. But McCoy specifically saw Allen’s potential on the first day of camp.
“His first day at camp, I say, ‘YO!’ Now he threw two picks that day. BUT. He was so talented, big arm, and he was a competitor. He threw those picks, and he was still ready to play. Most young dudes don’t wanna do that. I said, ‘Yo, he’s gonna be great.’ Then I started seeing him playing in games, I said, ‘Yo, in two years, he’s gonna be one of the best in the league.'”
McCoy likes to brag that Allen’s parents still mention to the RB whenever they see him that he was the first to believe in their son. Whether that’s true or not, who knows, but there’s no doubt that McCoy and his Bills comrades could see the talent in Allen right from the get-go.
And they couldn’t have hit the bull’s eye any better. He won his first NFL MVP award last year, and he is regularly mentioned in discussions of the greatest QBs in the league right now. However, there is one major hurdle that keeps him from the mountaintop as far as McCoy is concerned.
“Josh is probably the most talented quarterback I’ve seen. But this is still Patrick Mahomes’ league, and I can’t go against that. I think Josh is playing better than everybody right now, I think Josh is probably the best quarterback today. But it’s all about your resume. … Patrick Mahomes at his worst, even though they’re 0-2, they’re always in the AFC Championship Game or the Super Bowl.”
In the regular season, Josh Allen has the recipe to beat the Chiefs. He’s 4-1 in those games. But come playoff time, it’s almost as if the moment gets too big. Or he’s lost too many times now not to feel the nerves when it comes time to make the play to win the game.
Like we said, he has led the Bills to the playoffs in each of the last six seasons. In four of the last five, it was Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs that bounced Buffalo. He is now 0-4 against Mahomes in the postseason.
At this point, to get the “monkey off his back” as Steve Young famously said, it feels like Josh Allen will need a real sports exorcism like the one Young had in the 1994 Super Bowl. Or the Boston Red Sox had in 2004 to break the Curse of the Bambino. Or Peyton Manning had in 2006 when he finally beat Tom Brady.
With how the Chiefs and Bills have looked so far this season, however, Allen finally conquering Mount Mahomes doesn’t seem so far-fetched. But let’s not forget about that Lamar Jackson guy in Baltimore, either.
