Pro Football Focus spent the final days of the annual NFL offseason lull by publishing the aptly-named PFF50, a yearly exercise in which the outlet ranks the league’s top 50 players based on a bevy of factors, among them the website’s in-house player grades. The Buffalo Bills have just one representative on this year’s list, and you likely wouldn’t be hard-pressed to figure out who it is.
Quarterback Josh Allen is the lone Buffalo player on PFF’s ranking, slotting in at No. 12 amongst his peers. Lead PFF NFL analyst Sam Monson praised the passer’s ability to overcome coaching-related adversity and noted that the 2023 campaign, by the publication’s metric, was actually Allen’s strongest as a professional.
“Buffalo’s offense wasn’t as good last season as it had been in the past, and the team made a coaching change because of it, but Josh Allen remains a unique player at the position, capable of invalidating any defense with his arm or legs,” Monson wrote. “Allen actually posted the best PFF overall grade (92.1) and the second-best adjusted completion rate (77.1%) of his career in 2023.”
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Most would likely agree that the 2023 season likely wasn’t Allen’s best as a professional, but that’s far from a slight, as the quarterback has constructed some gaudy stat lines throughout his career. His passing touchdowns decreased and interceptions increased last season, with his total rushing yardage also dipping a bit. That said, he still recorded a league-high 44 total touchdowns, the fourth-consecutive year in which he’s tallied over 40 total scores.
A comparatively lesser year from Allen is still an MVP-caliber season.
Allen is the second-highest-ranked quarterback on PFF’s 2024 list, with Kansas City Chiefs passer Patrick Mahomes sitting at No. 1 overall. This serves as a slight improvement for Allen, as he was ranked as the No. 3 passer on last year’s list behind both Mahomes and Cincinnati Bengals signal-caller Joe Burrow. The former Heisman Trophy winner fell to No. 17 overall on this year’s list; Allen slotted in at No. 12 overall in both renditions.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from PFF’s ranking is the fact that Allen is the only Buffalo player featured. Checking in around the league to some of the other teams that boast premier quarterbacks, the Mahomes-led Chiefs have five additional players in the top 50, including two in the top 15. The Lamar Jackson-led Ravens have an additional four players in the top 50 while Burrow is joined by wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase in the top 25.
If PFF’s rankings are any indication, Allen has considerably less to work with than his peers both offensively and defensively. If he’s able to carry the team’s reworked roster—a unit that lost several stalwart starters this offseason—to another AFC East title and solid postseason outing this season, his status among the league’s elite should no longer be questioned.
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