Josh Allen, as the kids like to say, secured the bag.
The Buffalo Bills passer became the first of the 2018 quarterback class to sign a contract extension on Friday, reaching an agreement with the organization on a new deal:
Compensation update on Josh Allen new deal that @mortreport reported on: it’s a six-year deal worth $258 million, including $150 million guaranteed, per source. https://t.co/KXcgliKYAI
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 6, 2021
The contract keeps Allen with the Bills through the 2027 season, and largely comes as a result of the huge leap forward the young passer took during the 2020 season. After a somewhat uneven start to his NFL career, Allen played at an MVP level a season ago. As Doug Farrar illustrated earlier today, Allen’s 2020 season represented one of the most incredible one-year turnarounds from an NFL quarterback:
The trade for receiver Stefon Diggs also helped, but this was on Allen to improve, and he did — to a historic degree. Since 1983, per Football Outsiders, no NFL quarterback had a bigger third-year improvement than Allen, who had the biggest bump in DYAR, the second-biggest bumps in DVOA, completion percentage, and yards per attempt. Below Allen on the DYAR improvement list is Carson Palmer (Jordan’s brother), Ken O’Brien, Troy Aikman, Jim Everett, Jay Schroeder, Sam Bradford, Craig Erickson, Brian Griese, and Gus Frerotte.
Having earned that deal, the next step for Allen is to make it worth the Bills’ while. So let’s take a look at how Allen’s year three leap, and highlight how the quarterback can make do on a year four leap.
