It may be time for New York Jets fans to embrace the distinct possibility that their next quarterback is Josh Allen.
With the third overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, the New York Jets select… Josh Allen, quarterback, Wyoming.
From all the green and white fans I’ve spoken with, the above depiction seems to be the reaction when Allen and the Jets are mentioned in the same sentence. Sorry guys, but it may be time to embrace that harsh reality.
The Jets have the third overall draft choice after trading up with the Indianapolis Colts and have officially entered the hunt for a franchise quarterback.
They were certainly in the hunt at No. 6, but let’s be real, there was no guarantee any of the top quarterbacks would be available. So the Jets would’ve been playing a very dangerous game of chicken. Now they still are, but at a much lower level after trading up.
Why should we possibly embrace Allen to the Jets? Well, there seems to be a pattern developing…and the reason it may be time to start accepting that is because of Mike Maccagnan‘s draft history.
- David Carr, Houston Texans
- 6-foot-3
- 212 pounds
- Bryce Petty, New York Jets
- 6-foot-3
- 230 pounds
- Christian Hackenberg, New York Jets
- 6-foot-4
- 228 pounds
It’s a limited sample size, certainly, and I have a similar train of thought as my good buddy Joe Caporoso on the topic.
#Jets at #3 : They are taking Rosen if he's there. If not, it is a coin flip if they will end up taking Allen or Mayfield. If you are 100% certain it is Allen, you are weighing MM's past history too heavily. If you are 100% certain it is Mayfield, you aren't weighing it enough
— Joe Caporoso (@JCaporoso) March 20, 2018
Just because Maccagnan has drafted these quarterbacks in the past doesn’t necessarily pigeonhole him into taking Josh Allen, but it is interesting that all of these guys are at least 6-foot-3.
.@Jonas_SNY : "The Maccagnan prototype of a quarterback is a big sort of pocket passer with some mobility…and the measurables for [Josh] Allen are off the charts." pic.twitter.com/gmATJHBX2S
— SportsNet New York (@SNYtv) March 20, 2018
Sadly, Allen seems to be checking off all of the boxes for Maccagnan. Maybe Jets fans should start wrapping their heads around what appears to be a bad remake of the Hackenberg movie that failed so miserably before Allen.
Maybe accepting Allen right now be easier to swallow than pretending that the Jets would take a chance on Baker Mayfield at 6-foot-1, thus avoiding a boatload of disappointment and false hope on draft day.
But here’s the thing: I JUST CAN’T DO THAT!
I can’t look past the egregious completion percentage (56.2 percent). That is absolutely insane. How can you not complete passes in the MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE?!
I also have a follow-up question. How can you expect him to be better against smarter, stronger, larger players with better anticipation skills to intercept or bat down passes? Maybe I’ll just hang up and listen.
I’ve heard just about everything I can digest on the specs of Josh Allen: big body, laser beam cannon, and has underrated mobility.
But ultimately the tape never lies. Allen has had a few injury scares, he didn’t dominate in the lower conference, and there just seems to be a bunch of red flags as it pertains to his ability to transition.
Did I mention the completion percentage? I know I’m harping on that a lot, but name me a quarterback who never had a completion percentage above 56 percent who was successful at the next level? I can’t name one.
Although to Allen’s credit he said that’s an obvious black mark on his resume and that he’s been “trying to correct my feet through every throw and make sure that I was sequencing consistently. Once my feet started to clean up, that’s when you started seeing the ball placed in the right positions,” via Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News.
Also, in that same conversation, he also gushed about the Jets moving up in the draft, as reported by Mehta.
“If (the Jets) find a guy they fall in love with, I think that’s a team’s job to go get them if they feel that’s the future of their program,” Allen told Alex Marvez and Gil Brandt on SiriusXM NFL Radio this week. “They only traded three second-round picks for it.
“To keep their first-round pick next year was pretty big,” Allen said. “Sometimes, it takes another first-round pick (to move up). Luckily for them, they didn’t have to do that. I think they’ve still got some good quality there.”
Of course, that ‘good quality’ Allen is referring to is in his mind potentially talking about himself.
If the Jets do end up pulling the trigger on Allen, then the fan base should embrace him and respect that the Jets felt so confident that Allen was a home run that they traded up just to get him.
It won’t help anything to cry over spilled milk and make fun of Allen before he has a chance to prove himself. But in terms of positivity, that’s about all I can deliver. Hopefully, the Jets’ brass knows a lot more about Allen than I do.
