Bills’ Josh Allen is on track to become the best dual-threat QB in NFL history

The Buffalo Bills took a huge risk selecting Josh Allen with the seventh overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. The career catalog the Wyoming product is putting together is one that Brandon Beane’s wildest dreams couldn’t conjure up, as Allen is on track to become the greatest dual-threat quarterback of all time. Don’t you agree? Let’s compare the Buffalo signal-caller’s passing and rushing stats to those of other passers widely considered to be the best all-around quarterbacks since 2000.

For this exercise, we’ll look at Michael Vick, who was such a threat with his arms and legs that he had an entire ad campaign designed around him. Cam Newton won MVP and was the face of the NFL’s Play 60 campaign. Finally, Lamar Jackson is Allen’s quick comparison when it comes to players from his era, and it’s a bonus that both were first-round draft picks in 2018.

First up, here are their passing yards, where it won’t be long before Allen leads the group despite playing much less time. In his six seasons, Allen has already racked up 22,703 passing yards, including four straight seasons of 4,000+ yards. Jackson has 15,887 passing yards with 125 touchdowns. Vick has 22,464 passing yards and 133 touchdowns. The only player ahead of Allen is Newton, who has 32,382 passing yards and 194 touchdowns in his career. Allen has racked up 4,000+ yards in each of the last four years, so if he were to do it three more times, he would already pass Newton with fewer seasons and games played.

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I know, Allen must be way behind in completion percentage because he’s not accurate, right? No. Allen has a career completion percentage of 63.2, which includes a rookie year of 52.8 percent. Jackson’s 64.5 percent is the only one in the group ahead of Allen. Vick comes in at 56.2 percent and Newton at 59.9 percent.

Wait! Allen has those stats because he throws the ball a lot, but he’s also a steals machine. Allen has a career steals rate of 2.5%, Jackson has a career steals rate of 2.1%, Vick has a career steals rate of 2.7%, and Newton has a career steals rate of 2.7%.

On the rushing front, Allen trails in rushing yards with 3,611. Jackson leads Allen with 5,258 rushing yards, and the retired Vick and Newton come in at 6,109 and 5,628, respectively. The Bills quarterback is making up for lost time in scoring. Allen has 53 career rushing touchdowns. Jackson and Vick aren’t even in the conversation, with 29 and 36, respectively. Allen has some work to do to catch up to Newton’s 75, but he’s coming off a team-best 15 rushing touchdowns last year. A few more seasons like that or just keep up his nine-a-year pace, and he’ll pass Newton in that category, too.

The playoff numbers only amplify what Allen does as the GOAT, the dual-threat quarterback. Now, I want to clarify that I don’t believe wins are a QB statistic and reaching the playoffs is a team accomplishment, but most readers agree that quarterback is the most important position in sports, and Allen leads that group in accumulating playoff numbers. Allen has thrown for 3,286 yards and 26 touchdowns in 10 playoff games. The other three have played in 19 playoff games together. They have thrown for 5,172 yards and 27 touchdowns.

We don’t know how the rest of Allen or Jackson’s passers will fare, but if Buffalo’s passer can maintain a similar pace over the next few years, he will undeniably be the greatest dual-threat quarterback of his generation and beyond.

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