No scholarship offers to top NFL quarterback
Today, Josh Allen is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Yet, in high school, no Division I school offered him a scholarship; only one, San Diego State, gave him an option as a walk-on. So, Josh went to the junior college, Reedley College, and threw 26 touchdowns, albeit with a 49% completion percentage. He was now 6'5 and 210 pounds compared to 6'3 and 180 pounds in high school and with a successful season under his belt, so he hoped for scholarship offers this time. This time was better, but only two schools offered him, Wyoming and Eastern Michigan.
Josh enrolled in Wyoming but got injured in his first season with them. He threw for 3,203 yards and 28 touchdowns and 1,812 yards with 16 touchdowns in his second and third seasons, respectively. Going into the 2018 NFL draft, Allen had some fans who were high on him, but most people doubted him due to his low completion percentage; he never exceeded 56.3% in any of his full seasons. He was selected 7th overall by the Buffalo Bills, and many panned that move.
He struggled his rookie season but improved enough in his second year to pass for 3,089 yards and 20 touchdowns to take the Bills to the playoffs. Yet, there were still a lot of people who doubted that Allen could be a franchise quarterback going into his third year. Most naysayers pointed to his low completion percentages, 52.8 and 58.8 in his first two seasons.
In 2020, Josh Allen would prove everyone wrong and improve drastically, throwing 4,544 yards and improving his completion percentage to 69.2%. This 16.4% improvement was the greatest two-year increase ever.
Social Media
Quotes
I truly felt like I was a Division I quarterback, and I'd felt that way for a long time,...I just wanted other people to see it.
Josh Allen
Throughout the history of scouting, we kept waiting for a guy that didn’t play well in games, had flashes but had all these measurables,...And finally Josh Allen was the one to break through and actually develop and be the guy that, the tape wasn’t that great, and he turned out with the physical tools to develop.
Marc Ross
References
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“It Takes a Village”: The Lessons Behind Josh Allen’s Rapid Rise
It’s a throw that might have had disastrous results earlier in Allen’s career—a high-risk attempt into a tight window. His questionable decision-making and poor accuracy had combined to end many Bills drives in his first two years as Buffalo’s starter. This season, however, Allen has the fourth-best completion percentage in the NFL while still pushing the ball downfield in coordinator Brian Daboll’s offense.
The Ringer
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The Josh Allen Experience is getting a little less wild — and a lot better
Allen has polarized since he became a draft prospect. Draft experts argued about the meaning of his subpar college completion percentage. Scouts drooled over his 6-foot-5 frame, cannon arm and freight-train running ability.
The Washington Post
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If Josh Allen succeeds, the Bills will have outsmarted basically all regular humans and the entirety of math itself
Josh Allen was hyped for a full year before the 2018 NFL Draft as a potential No. 1 pick, and he went No. 7 to the Bills, all to the bafflement of pretty much everyone not employed by the league.
SB Nation
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The NFL draft darling who couldn't get a college scholarship
The recipient list included not only every FBS head coach, but also every offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and position coach from Alabama to Washington, more than 1,000 emails in total. They started with the same salutation and the same desperate plea from a kid in tiny Firebaugh, California: I want to be your quarterback.
ESPN
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How Wyoming's Josh Allen went from zero scholarships to the top of NFL draft boards
How does a quarterback with prototypical NFL size, arm strength and athleticism go overlooked by almost every Division I program in the country? It could only happen somewhere as far flung as Firebaugh, a town of 8,000 people separated from the nearest freeway by almost 20 miles of rolling farmland.
Yahoo
