Josh Allen has been nothing short of amazing in the 2022 season as he is one of the favorites to win the league’s Most Valuable Player Award, whether it was throwing the ball through the air or pounding the rock, keeping drives alive. Since the 1997 season, the Bills have been looking for a franchise quarterback to replace Jim Kelly, whom the team could build around for the last two decades, and it looks like they have a man who could go down as the greatest quarterback to wear a jersey in Western New York.
This story begins in his rookie season of 2018, and while he does not have the polish he has now, Allen flashed potential that endeared him to the fans that would come out in droves to see the rocket-armed deliver a strike. As mentioned earlier, the biggest knock against Allen was his apparent lack of accuracy to go with the throwing power. Like in his college days, Wyoming was not precisely known for its five-star Wide Receiver recruits; the Buffalo Bills also had an anemic group.
Their top three ball catchers were Zay Jones, an inconsistent and disappointing second-round pick out of Eastern Carolina University. Kelvin Benjamin, a highly-touted but lazy and overweight target for the rookie, was an undrafted wide receiver in Robert Foster, who was an excellent athlete who never put it all together in college or the pros.
This issue of who would catch the ball from the man with the apparent golden arm changed when free agents Cole Beasley from the Dallas Cowboys and John Brown from the Baltimore Ravens decided they would come to Buffalo and help out the now second-year player in Allen. However, the most considerable growth came between years two and three, as their wide receiver corps was not complete yet; the team gambled and made a deal with the Minnesota Vikings to acquire Stefon Diggs for their first-round pick, who showed potential to be the guy in the NFC North.
Diggs has lived up to that number-one receiver potential since the deal happened. They would get asked consistently, why come here? Buffalo has been nothing more than a doormat since 2000. Their response to the question had nearly the same answer no matter who got asked, Allen in one way or another.
If all Allen did was seemingly recruit guys to catch balls for him and have the best offense the team has seen since the Super Bowl years, it would be an impressive feat. Unfortunately for the rest of the league, defensive players would also start coming, including defensive tackle DaQuan Jones from the Tennesee Titans, who praised Allen’s athleticism after witnessing it first-hand last season.
Furthermore, the biggest recruit for Allen to date has been a future Hall of Fame enshrinee in edge rusher and two-time Super Bowl champion Von Miller, who has been a catalyst for an already excellent defense, but more on him later. Simply put, Josh Allen will be the leader of the Buffalo Bills and the Buffalo community on and off the field for years to come.