At age 29, Bills QB Josh Allen is reflecting on where he’s at in his career and where he’s going.
And he’s starting with last season.
In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Allen examined a play in which he and receiving tight end Dalton Kincaid missed a connection on a reception that would have left him wide open for a touchdown.
It was against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 10, with Buffalo up 10–3 and 16 seconds left in the first quarter on 3rd-and-3 at the Indy 28. Allen opened was looking right at the snap and found Kincaid wide-open down the seam, he threw with a bit too much zip and just overthrew his target.
Buffalo would go on to win 30–20. It would be easy to shake off and rinse the play from memory during an MVP campaign season.
For Josh Allen, it’s one of a handful he’s looking at to see how he can improve the next time those opportunities present themselves.
“It would’ve been a laugher,” (an easy touchdown) said Allen to said to Sports Illustrated‘s Albert Breer. “And I feel so bad, because I missed Dalton more than anyone last year, and I wish people would see that and say Josh needs to be better for Dalton, not the other way around. He’s such a stud; I’ve got so much faith in him. But, again, I’m still trying to get better.”
“There are still so many things I can grow from, mainly with my eyes and my feet,” Allen says. “I’m still working mechanically and trying to be as sound as possible. But, looking back at the tape last year, there were four or five touchdowns that I missed, which would have been walk-ins. They could have helped us and put us in a better situation.”
Allen is not the same player year to year. He’s always developing, although he certainly retains aspects of his game that have set him apart from the rest of the league, such as his ability to know when to take the ball and run with it.
The all-purpose yards and points that have yielded have been nothing short of historical and a thing of Gridiron legend, forever featured in highlight reels for generations to come.
Even still, to reach the heights he hopes to as a team in the NFL, the QB realizes that playing smart and staying healthy are key to long-term success.
“I think about it a lot; eventually my game will have to evolve,” he added. “And I think last year was a step in the right direction, where I didn’t take too many hits. I’m not saying I didn’t take any. But during this offseason? This is the best I’ve felt after any season because I didn’t take hits.”
For his part, GM Brandon Beane has added competitive talent and depth to the receiver group this offseason to improve the passing game.
By adding route runners like Joshua Palmer and Elijah Moore, offensive coordinator Joe Brady can create more vertical route opportunities downfield for the type of deep ball plays Allen has thrown to past receivers like John Brown and Gabe Davis, while also opening up a quite literal field of opportunities in using complete route running to create space for crossing routes.
Keon Coleman, Khalil Shakir, Curtis Samuel, Tyrell Shavers, Dalton Kincaid, Dawson Knox, James Cook, Ty Johnson, and Ray Davis will all work to be ready and able to catch those cross-route and check-down passes and to see how many yards-after-catch they can generate when their number is called.
Allen knows that in order to stay healthy and in the best shape, to retain his mechanics and make those plays and complete those throws in OC Joe Brady’s well-distributed efficiency offense, he’ll need to continue to develop his decision-making and game accordingly.
“Yeah,” he says. “But, again, it’s just being smarter, sliding, getting out of bounds, and throwing the ball away a little bit quicker and not taking these extra one or two hits a game that start adding up,”
This article originally appeared on Bills Wire: NFL Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen still trying to get better