The practice portion of the offseason has hardly begun but it appears that the Buffalo Bills new first round quarterback is already drawing a fair share of praise from both Bills players and anonymous team insiders.
Bleacher Report’s Chris Simms, who was a well-known Allen supporter during draft season, discussed on his Simms & Lefkoe podcast how Allen has already made a very good first impression during his scant few weeks on the team.
“I had a member of the media up there first tell me and then I talked to somebody involved in their organization. Josh Allen is blowing people away,” said Simms. “I mean blowing people away. It sounds like a Carson Wentz thing. I think everybody is blown away by his mental approach, but practice is eye-opening like we said it would be.”
The Carson Wentz reference could serve as early foreshadowing of what could happen later in the offseason with the Bills. Observers will remember that Wentz’s surprisingly strong play in the preseason led the Philadelphia Eagles to trade Sam Bradford to the Minnesota Vikings and start Wentz Week 1 of the 2016 season.
Allen has also managed to impress one of his new teammates in Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White. During his recent appearance on NFL Network, White went out of his way to heap effusive praise on Allen’s potential and, particularly, his arm talent.
“Josh Allen’s been doing a great job of throwing that ball, man. When I say he has a great arm, he’s been throwing it around, man. Be on the lookout for Josh Allen, he’s going to be one of the best young quarterbacks in this league for a long time.
While this is all good news for Bills fans, let’s pump the brakes a bit and realize that it’s only been a couple weeks of OTAs and he’s playing against third-teamers. If Allen can extend his impressive play on the field into training camp and the preseason games, fans can actually start to get excited.