Josh Allen has dealt with near-constant criticism since his days hurling bombs in Laramie, WY, as he was written off by many as a ‘parody of a quarterback prospect’ in the lead-up to the 2018 NFL Draft. The signal-caller has silenced doubters at every turn since being selected by the Buffalo Bills with the seventh overall pick in that draft, evolving from an athletically gifted, but unrefined passer into a worldbeater who is objectively among the NFL’s most dynamic and impactful players. He’s accounted for 221 total touchdowns since his debut campaign, with his 203 combined touchdowns since 2019 being the most of any player over that span.
Few players in today’s league have more impact on their team or on the general game than Allen, but some still fail to recognize his prowess. ESPN recently released an article in which they surveyed 103 anonymous NFL players, with 11 of them voting the Buffalo passer as the league’s “most overrated” quarterback. Allen received the most votes of any signal-caller in the NFL, with Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa tying for second with 10 votes each.
It’s a small sample size that admittedly makes for a strange survey (Allen, for example, was also voted as the fourth-best quarterback in the league), but it’s still strange to see a quarterback as demonstrably dominant as Allen—who is the only player in NFL history to total over 40 touchdowns in four consecutive seasons—receive the most votes in any category ranking ‘overrated’ players. This is a sentiment shared by former NFL executive and current ESPN analyst Louis Riddick, who pushed back on the survey during a Wednesday appearance on ESPN’s Get Up!
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.@LRiddickESPN is “shocked” that Josh Allen was voted most overrated NFL QB by his peers.@ByKimberleyA says "it's top tier hateration." 😭 pic.twitter.com/D1i97DoDfa
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) August 28, 2024
“I’m shocked,” Riddick said regarding Allen’s ranking. “It’s the Kansas City Chiefs are the team that said, ‘Look, when we play Josh Allen, we know [that] with one swing of that arm, he can win the football game.’ And he almost did it against them just this past year if Stefon Diggs makes the catch, and that throw, maybe the only other quarterback that can make that throw that he made to Stefon is their quarterback. Basically, they’re staring at a guy who can do a lot of the same things that their quarterback can do.
“The only way I can really kind of look at this with a true, I would say objective perspective is this: any quarterback that I played against who had that dual run/pass capability that I knew that no matter how deep I was as a safety on the football field, he could still put it over my head, those are the guys who scared me to death. I remember Major Harris from West Virginia when I played against him when I was at Pittsburgh, thinking ‘This guy can throw it from anywhere, he can beat me at any time, I have to defend the entire field.’ Josh Allen does that. He does that. It’s that simple. He simply does that. I don’t know how he’s No. 1 on this list. It makes no sense.”
The never-ending criticism of Allen and belief that he’s ‘overrated’ is nothing short of comical at this point. He can make every throw—nay, every play—on the field, his ability as both a passer and runner making him a wholly unique player who opponents dread going up against. It’s true that he turns the ball over a bit too often, but when his career touchdown total is more than double that of his turnover total, the deficiency can be forgiven. He’ll look to silence doubters with another stellar outing in 2024, but at this point, his production likely won’t matter, as his critics have seemingly taken permanent residence in a land of delusion.
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