By Nick Wojton / billswire.usatoday.com
The Buffalo Bills have taken the field eight times so far for training camp, seven times at St. John Fisher College in Pittsford and once at New Era Field in Orchard Park.
Most NFL training camps have gone about the same distance. Bleacher Report took a look at each NFL team through the first week of training camps and tabbed each team’s “early disappointment.” For the Bills, B/R named Josh Allen.
Here’s what B/R’s Brent Sobleski wrote on Allen:
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen is a work in progress. Everyone knows this, including Allen.
“We’re getting to where we want to get,” the first-year quarterback said, per the Toronto Sun’s John Kryk. “Still, it’s going to take some time. And I’m not putting any pressure on myself right now.”
Ideally, a team’s first-round pick blows away the coaching staff and takes the starting job. That’s not the case in Buffalo. In fact, Allen continues to work with the third-team offense, according to The Athletic’s Matthew Fairburn.
This year’s seventh overall pick has his flaws, and they were well-known before his selection. Allen has all of the requisite physical tools to be a top-end NFL starter, yet he struggles with accuracy (56.2 percent at Wyoming). As a result, the 22-year-old signal-caller became a target of social media shaming after woefully missing a wide-open running back out of the backfield. It’s one play among hundreds he’ll make or miss.
Confirmation bias aside—what’s more disturbing is the Bills’ quarterback competition seems to be a battle of attrition. No one, including the rookie, is playing well enough to stabilize the offense. AJ McCarron, who received the majority of reps with the first-team offense during the previous two days, found himself with the second unit Friday, according to WKBW Buffalo’s Joe Buscaglia.
Allen isn’t the Bills’ savior. Not yet. There’s still a long way to go before he even gets an opportunity to prove he can be.
So far, AJ McCarron and Nathan Peterman have rotated as Buffalo’s first-team quarterback. Allen usually take one or two series with the first-team offense each practice, but that’s it.
Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott has constantly said throughout camp that he has a “plan” for Allen and the quarterbacks. On Friday, general manager Brandon Beane gave a little bit more insight into the Bills’ QB battle, saying the team will take the next step in between their first and second preseason games.
On Thursday, Buffalo plays the Carolina Panthers in their preseason opener and on Aug. 17 the Bills play the Cleveland Browns. Unless Allen comes out on Sunday, the next scheduled practice for the Bills, as the first-team QB, it’s unlikely Bleacher Report will change their stance on him.