Is Josh Allen overrated? Bills QB earns dubious honor from ESPN's anonymous NFL player survey

28-08-2024
5 min read
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When the Bills traded up in the 2018 NFL Draft to land Josh Allen, he was viewed as a project. The Wyoming quarterback had a massive arm and great mobility, but there were concerns about whether he would be accurate enough to succeed at the NFL level.

Allen has proven that he is a capable NFL starter. He has led the Bills to a 63-30 record in 93 career starts while turning a downtrodden Buffalo team into a perennial playoff contender.

Even so, Allen hasn't earned the respect of the entire NFL. The 28-year-old still has his doubters who believe he is overrated. The latest example comes from a poll of his peers in which he earned an ignominious honor.

Here's a look at what NFL players think of Josh Allen.

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Is Josh Allen overrated?

Allen was voted the NFL's most overrated quarterback in an anonymous survey of NFL players conducted by ESPN.

The vote was tightly contested, but Allen garnered 11 of the 103 votes from the surveyed players. Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa each finished one vote back of the Bills passer.

Below are the results of that survey question, per ESPN.

Rank Player Votes
1 Josh Allen 11
2 Jalen Hurts 10
  Tua Tagovailoa 10
4 Justin Herbert 9
5 Trevor Lawrence 8
6 Deshaun Watson 7
7 Kyler Murray 6
8 Brock Purdy 6

Why did so many players select Allen as the most overrated quarterback in the NFL?

"Too many turnovers," one NFC West player told ESPN.

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That's a fair criticism of Allen when breaking down his stats and performance.

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Josh Allen stats

Allen has turned the ball over a league-high 102 times since entering the league in 2018. He has thrown at least nine interceptions each season and logged a career-worst 18 in 2023.

Below is a full breakdown of Allen's passing stats:

Year Games Comp. % Passing yards Pass TDs INTs Rating
2018 12 52.8 2,074 10 12 67.9
2019 16 58.8 3,089 20 9 85.3
2020 16 69.2 4,544 37 10 107.2
2021 17 63.3 4,407 36 15 92.2
2022 16 63.3 4,283 35 14 96.6
2023 17 66.5 4,306 29 18 92.2

And here is a look at his career rushing stats:

Year Carries Yards TDs
2018 89 631 8
2019 109 510 9
2020 102 421 8
2021 122 763 6
2022 124 762 7
2023 111 524 15

While criticism of Allen's turnovers is fair, it's worth noting that Allen is a prolific dual-threat quarterback. That's why he was also one of the top vote-getters in another ESPN survey question asking players to rank the NFL's top three quarterbacks.

He finished fourth in those rankings behind Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow.

Thus, it would appear that the opinion of Allen's skill set is mixed. Some believe he is overrated while others believe he is one of the NFL's top five quarterbacks.

The truth may be somewhere in the middle based on his 2023 performance. Allen graded out as a top-three quarterback based on his QBR and PFF grade while his passer rating placed him closer to the league average because of his interception woes.

Stat Total NFL rank
Passer rating 92.2 16th of 32
QBR 69.6 3rd of 32
PFF Grade 91.2 1st of 38

Allen will look to quiet his doubters in 2024 as the Bills hope to mount their first Super Bowl run since 1994.