Of all the quarterbacks in the National Football League, none is more overrated than Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills. At least that’s what the results of an anonymous survey of 103 NFL players that was conducted by ESPN say.
The survey, which found Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson to be the NFL’s top quarterbacks, was very unforgiving to Allen due to an issue that has plagued him throughout his career: turnovers.
The 28-year-old, who has made two Pro Bowls and made it to the playoffs five times with one appearance in an AFC Championship Game, leads the league in turnovers since 2018 with 102. Jared Goff (96), Baker Mayfield (90) and Derek Carr (89) are behind Allen in TOs.
Every Josh Allen interception from the 2022-2023 season.
Warning… this is a long video. pic.twitter.com/gmPgdlulLO
— Big E (@ian693) September 2, 2023
Coming in behind Allen, who received 11 votes, in the most overrated category were Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa with 10 votes apiece. “How hard is it to throw jump balls to A.J. Brown or DeVonta Smith?” an NFC East player asked with regard to Hurts. “And their tight end [Dallas Goedert] is really good.”
This isn’t the first time Allen, who has a 63-30 record in the regular season and has led 13 comebacks and 19 game-winning drives for the Bills in his six years in the NFL, has been labeled as being overrated.
In another ESPN article from last month that asked executives, coaches and scouts to weigh in on the league’s top 10 quarterbacks, an anonymous NFL executive had this to say about the former No. 7 overall pick.
“One of the more overrated players in the NFL,” a veteran NFL executive said. “Immense talent but he makes a lot of mistakes. He’s underdeveloped at winning at the line of scrimmage, tends to lock on to targets, more of a thrower than precision passer, forces throws into traffic.”
“Josh Allen is two or three plays away from being a multi-Super Bowl appearing quarterback and potentially Super Bowl winning quarterback. … It’s a moronic statement to make.”@danorlovsky7 can’t believe people are calling Josh Allen overrated 😯 pic.twitter.com/FArfwUkOhX
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) July 16, 2024
Made aware of what the exec had said about Buffalo’s former first-round selection, Bills general manager Brandon Beane defended his franchise quarterback.
“There’s idiots everywhere,” Beane said. “I don’t know where to start. It’s frustrating, You try to ignore this stuff, but Josh is going into Year 7 and there’s still the naysayers. I don’t get it. If I was going to use rated, I would say underrated before I would say overrated. And I know I’m biased; he’s our guy, love him every single day.”
As the latest ESPN piece about QBs reflects, some NFL players feel quite differently.