Josh Allen's commitment to self-improvement saved his career
Taking a week off from food talk to discuss our favorite golden retriever quarterback.
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Welcome, new subscribers! A lot of folks are new here after last week’s Buffalo chicken crunchwrap post, so of course I’m taking a hard turn this week and talking about Not Food. Regularly scheduled service will resume soon.
As you may have noticed from my last mailbag, I’m a Buffalo Bills fan, and the Bills just finished their best season since I was in elementary school. Much of their success was down to the performance of quarterback Josh Allen, a player who I thought would be one of the biggest draft busts in history. I was far from the only one to think this, for what it’s worth, but here we find ourselves eating our words. I wanted to write something about Allen’s incredible development, both as a player and a person since arriving in Buffalo. Consider this my mea culpa, Josh.
The Buffalo Bills’ season ended in disappointment. There’s no shame in losing in the AFC Championship to the Kansas City Chiefs after their best season in over 25 years, but to be so close to their first Super Bowl title and still see the obstacles they have yet to overcome is tough. But with the benefit of a little distance from this game, it’s easy to say this season was an overwhelming success for the Bills. It’s proof of concept for the entire project, but mainly it’s proof that Josh Allen really is The Guy at quarterback they’ve been searching for for decades. Even one year ago, this would have sounded like wishful thinking, but Allen has remade himself into a genuinely good NFL quarterback, not just a pile of physical tools
Josh Allen’s growth as an NFL quarterback is without historical precedent.
For the first year-plus, Allen was the worst quarterback in the league by a wide margin. He improved somewhat in year two, but anyone telling you Allen was a no-doubt franchise cornerstone was still basing that on projected growth, not what he was at that moment.
Then 2020 happened, and we don’t need to project anymore. Allen has arrived as a top-tier NFL quarterback. He was in the MVP discussion, and set franchise records for passing yards, passing touchdowns, total touchdowns, completion percentage, and quarterback rating. He is only the second quarterback in franchise history to throw for more than 4,000 yards, something Jim Kelly never did.
The completion percentage stat is perhaps the most surprising. Allen completed 69.2% of his passes this year, an astonishing increase from the 52.8% he completed as a rookie. He has cut his interception rate by more than half since his rookie year, and he takes sacks on 4% of his dropbacks compared to 8% as a rookie. The erratic throws and wild mistakes that were the hallmark of his game as a young player have all but disappeared, but the dynamic athleticism and confidence to Make A Play remained. Allen has developed a level of polish to his game that simply did not seem possible even a year ago.
The offense began to show signs of life over the second half of the 2019 season, but the acquisition of Stefon Diggs from Minnesota in the offseason poured gasoline on the fire they had built. Diggs led the league in both receptions and receiving yards, but his production did not come at the expense of the rest of the team’s skill players. The Bills had 13 players catch a touchdown pass in 2020, including Allen, tying the NFL record. Cole Beasley had the best year of his career, and was nearly the team’s second 1,000 yard receiver, and rookie Gabriel Davis was second on the team with seven touchdown catches. The fact that the offense didn’t regress even though last year’s top receiver, John Brown, was largely a non-factor this season due to injuries is a testament to development between Allen and the rest of the skill position talent.
Earlier this season, an apology form began circulating Twitter as the people that backed Allen to be a success from the beginning were taking their victory lap.
It’s sub-replacement level as a goof, but what’s really striking about it is how the people that were so vocal about how great Allen was — even when there was no evidence to support them — are actually minimizing the work Allen had to put in to make himself a good NFL quarterback. He was on track to be a monumental bust, and he would have become one had he not faced reality and made changes. By insisting that he was going to be a star all along, his biggest supporters actually take the focus away from where it should rightfully go in the name of petty online score-settling.
Allen’s professional growth can be traced to several things, but probably the most important of which was the time he spent rebuilding his mechanics and approach with private quarterback coach Jordan Palmer. Allen was faced with the reality that he had to change in order to stay in the NFL, let alone thrive. And to his credit, he did it, and the realities of life during COVID may have helped.
Palmer is a bit hesitant to talk about the other aspect he thinks spurred Allen's progress this year, because he doesn't want it to come across as callous, but there is no doubt in his mind that the COVID-19 travel restrictions forced his clients (Allen among them) to live in a football bubble they'll never experience again. Palmer had to cancel nearly all of his passing camps for high school kids around the country, as well as a three-week stint in Germany. He poured all his focus into trying to better understand biomechanics and the kinematic sequence, knowing his players had similar free time.
"Think about it like this," Palmer says. "They didn't go to OTAs, which are a waste of time for a lot of guys. If you're someone like Drew Brees, you're actually better off being at home with your trainer. Well, they also didn't have any weddings to attend. They didn't have any charity golf tournaments. Nobody shot commercials. Nobody went out and did a boys weekend in Cabo or Vegas, which a lot of guys do three weekends a month. Nobody did any of that s--- because of COVID."
The ability to recognize the need for personal change is a vanishingly rare commodity in the modern world. Criticism is met with defensiveness rather than an open mind, and the loudest, most wrong voices tend to be rewarded for their efforts.
Allen was embroiled in scandal when he was drafted by the Bills. Old tweets from Allen in 2012 and 2013 containing the N-word and other racist language had been dug up, and between that and his thin football resume, it felt like Allen would be another in a long line of Bills quarterbacks I’d be eager to forget. But rather than digging in and saying he was hacked, he said he was wrong and that he’d work to gain the trust and respect of his new teammates. Allen was supposed to be the new leader and face of the franchise, and having to clean up this mess with your new teammates before getting to the actual football is a horrible place to start. That Allen was able to win over Lorenzo Alexander, the elder statesman linebacker and locker room leader, spoke volumes that his contrition was genuine.
The story surrounding Allen’s tweets faded quickly as the focus turned to his on-field play, so it certainly took some by surprise when Allen spoke strongly in support of Buffalo’s black community during the Black Lives Matter protests that swept the nation following the death of George Floyd. Buffalo became the focus of the nation after two police officers were caught on video shoving over a 75 year old protester and stepping over his body while blood poured from his head. The fact that Allen didn’t equivocate or issue some mushy both-sides nonsense felt like a proclamation to the world that he had indeed been genuine about his desire to change and improve as a person.
Changing one’s opinion when being exposed to new information should not feel like an accomplishment. It should be the norm. But generally when someone is caught saying something racist, they usually double down and become more racist rather than admit they were wrong and need to grow. The American conservative grievance machine welcomes in disgraced public figures with great regularity, as it remains the last viable way for famous people to keep making money once they show their true colors. If you don’t feel like admitting to your mistakes and making public penance, you can always make a fine living complaining about liberals and cancel culture on YouTube while selling brain pills.
You cannot separate Allen’s personal growth from his professional growth. The ability to swallow your pride and revamp your entire professional approach requires the same humility as admitting to your personal mistakes and making improvements. The same elements of personal character are at play here, and if Allen had not come to Buffalo humbled and committed to personal growth, he may never have taken the radical steps necessary for him to become a star.
Josh Allen’s commitment to growth, both personal and professional, is what dragged the Buffalo Bills out of the muck of entrenched incompetence. For the first time since I was in elementary school, the team feels like they’re going to be good for a while. After decades of aimless drift and organizational rot, it’s easy to feel hopeful about the future.
Some quick housekeeping: No newsletter next week due to a personal schedule conflict. I’ll see you all on the 16th.