Josh Allen is the greatest football player on earth right now

By CNN Newsource

Published December 13, 2024 8:59 AM

Analysis by Harry Enten, CNN

(CNN) — The Buffalo Bills arguably won their biggest game of the year by defeating the Detroit Lions on Sunday.

The reason is simple: Josh Allen. He’s put up ridiculous stats the last few weeks in terms of rushing and passing touchdowns, but it’s more than that. Allen is putting together a historic year that not only may give him his first MVP award but will always keep the Bills alive in the hunt for the Lombardi Trophy.

Allen is the best quarterback in the league when you look at his passing and rushing statistics. Statistics that try to do this – such as ESPN’s QBR or expected points added (which is a component of QBR) – rank Allen as number one. The Buffalo signal-caller has never ranked first in either of these statistics at the end of the season.

Allen has been a top-10 passer this season. He’s in the top 10 for passing yards per attempt (8.0) and touchdown percentage on passes (5.9). In both categories, however, he ranks outside of the top five.

Where Allen has been special this year is that he’s playing nearly mistake-free football. He’s been sacked just 2.95% of the time when attempting to pass. That’s well down from his career average of 5.00%, and it ranks second in the NFL. It’s less than half the level of the average quarterback (7.05%), which is just north of where Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes sits (6.52%).

What makes Allen’s low sack percentage so impressive is he doesn’t just throw the ball away to avoid a sack. He tries to make something happen on almost every play – and often succeeds.

Such a playing style can be risky and lead to turnovers, which has been one of the main gripes against Allen over the last few years. In 2023, he threw an interception on 3.1% of all pass attempts for a total of 18.

This year, however, Allen has only thrown an interception every 1.2% pass attempts. That ranks not only as a career low for Allen, but it ranks fourth in the entire league. Allen is way below the league average of 2.2%, while last year he was well above it.

The lack of mistakes and high number of passing yards and touchdowns make Allen a prolific passer. In fact, according to adjusted net yards per attempt (a stat that takes into account passing yards, passing touchdowns, interceptions and sacks), Allen is second in the league.

What makes Allen really unique is when you factor in his rushing.

Yes, Allen is fourth for quarterbacks in run yardage at 484 yards. What makes Allen great at running is he runs in order to extend drives or end them with touchdowns.

Allen has 11 rushing touchdowns this year, which ranks second among all quarterbacks. His 46 rushing first downs is also second among all quarterbacks.

That’s what differentiates Allen from someone like Lamar Jackson. Both Jackson and Allen are great passers who run with success. But while Jackson is more like a halfback who runs for more yards, Allen is like a fullback who can be trusted to pick up the necessary yards in a short yardage situation.

So if Allen isn’t like Jackson, who is he like? I was trying to find a historical analogy for Allen. Someone who doesn’t throw interceptions, doesn’t get sacks, throws for a lot of yards (over 3,000 for Allen) and rushes for a lot of touchdowns.

So I decided to plug Allen’s stats into Stathead, and I came up with absolutely nothing.

That is, Allen is literally the only quarterback through 14 games who has the stats that he has in terms of passing and rushing success.

This matches with a frequent meme posted to Bills forums, including on Reddit: Josh Allen is the only quarterback in NFL history.

Allen’s performance last two weeks is the reason Pat McAfee called Allen the “GREATEST football player on earth right now.. NO QUESTIONS ASKED.”

Indeed, if you believe the New York Times, the Bills not only have the best shot of winning the Super Bowl of any AFC team but in the entire NFL.

I’ll take that any day.

Favorite play of last week

There were a lot of favorite play candidates from this past week, but I have to choose one that goes with this article’s theme.

Therefore, I go with Allen’s run with about 6:36 to go in the fourth quarter. The run went for an easy first down and kept the ball out the Lions’ hands.

A lot of Allen’s success this season has been physical, but it’s also been mental. Allen isn’t making mistakes. In this case, he got the yardage he needed and slid. It was perfect.

An unhappy memory from the week

The Bills just won a football game by scoring over 40 points when the opponent also scored over 40 points.

I can recall a game when they lost a game when they scored over 40 points when the opponent scored over 40 points. Oh wait, that was last week.

Winning feels much better than losing does.

Article Topic Follows: CNN-Opinion

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