Breaking news: internet discourse is not reflective of reality.
It’s an obvious statement, sure, but The Athletic writer Jeff Howe proved its validity yet again on Monday morning in an article for the outlet sharing intel about all 32 NFL clubs entering the new campaign. He wrote a blurb about Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, who has been at the center of football-centric conversations across the internet in recent days after an anonymous ESPN survey of 103 NFL players concluded that the 28-year-old is the league’s most overrated signal-caller.
People from across the sports world came to Allen’s defense after the survey’s publication, with those in positions of prominence around the league being the latest to attest to the quarterback’s merit. Howe spoke to several league employees after the survey was released, with the vast majority of them telling the writer that Allen is still the league’s second-best passer.
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“That certainly isn’t a debate among the many league executives and coaches I’ve spoken with,” Howe wrote. “He is still largely considered the second-best QB in the NFL behind only Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes.”
It’s not at all surprising to see that executives and coaches around the league still believe that Allen trails only Mahomes in terms of quality, as this is what the stats indicate. No player in the league has totaled more touchdowns than Allen since his 2019 sophomore campaign (203), and he’s the only player in league history to total over 40 scores in four consecutive seasons. His on-field dominance with both his arm and legs has bred consistent team success, as he’s dragged Buffalo from the depths of irrelevancy and into perennial contention; he’s led the Bills to a postseason berth in all but one of his seasons under center, this while also rattling off four straight AFC East crowns.
Most immediately wrote off Allen’s ranking as the league’s “most overrated” quarterback as egregious, and it’s encouraging to see that NFL executives echoed the sentiment. The former All-Pro has one of his toughest tasks in recent memory ahead of him in 2024, as he’s working with a revamped and generally unproven receiving corps after the offseason departures of Stefon Diggs and Gabriel Davis; if his training camp excellence is any indication, the reworked unit won’t prompt any hiccups from the quarterback this fall.
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