Quote:
Originally Posted by RaidersOftheCellar
I'm not buying lack of weapons as an excuse. Allen's had solid weapons for several years now, and better weapons than Mahomes the last two years. Plus he's always supported by a top defense.
Last year he had Kincaid/Diggs/Knox/Davis/Shakir/Cook, along with good tackles and a solid all around OL. The fact that fans complained about a lack of weapons only proves that Allen isn't nearly the "Superman" he's said to be.
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When I say 'inappropriate weapons,' I'm not talking about the relative talents of his WRs. It's a fact that he didn't have a running game the last couple seasons. The OL was a part of that, but empirically they didn't run the ball effectively with the journeyman RBs they had, unless Josh ran the ball consistently.
They didn't seem to know how to use Kincaid very well. Gabe Davis turned out to be their version of MVS. Fast, but not reliable.
On top of all of that, their OC didn't seem to know his job.
Their season turned around last year after they fired that guy and started running the ball more consistently. A large percentage of that was Josh taking off more often, iirc. Another piece was basically using Diggs as a decoy, or so it seemed, considering his yards/gm went from 80+ to 40/gm.
And that was a seachange from how he approached the game since Diggs became a Bill. At the beginning and until half-way through last season, Josh just found Diggs and threw it at him; he didn't really have a plan B. Sometime after they fired their first OC, Josh started to consistently find other receivers. And they ran the ball a lot more consistently. I think that was a big part of their success in the last half of the season.
All of that said, I never said Josh was Superman. Obviously at the start of his career he was an incredible athletic talent with a 10-cent head. I think he's progressed from that, but I still believe he's not near Pat in terms of football IQ. To me, he's kind of Cam Newton with a much better arm.
The question this season will be can he progress beyond Cam Newton level football IQ, or no. Because they won't have Diggs to create problems for defenses. No more double teams or rolling coverage towards Diggs, leaving everyone else 1v1. Defenses will be able to come at him with more disguises and different looks.
it'll be interesting to see how he handles it.