Josh Allen is Ready to be Elite in 2021

profileby:Eric Decker08/08/21

Edecker17

Twitter: @Jaguars

One Josh Allen is on his way to becoming Scrooge McDuck diving into pools of money- $258 million worth of money to be exact. The other should be primed for quite the pay-day within the next couple of years despite a disappointing sophomore campaign.

You don’t have to convince anyone in Lexington that Allen will bounce back to his Pro Bowl form after his stellar rookie season that resulted in 10.5 sacks and 44 tackles. Yeah, he had a spotty 2020 season but like many things from that year, it simply doesn’t count. He had 2.5 sacks and only 13 tackles on the year, but only played half of the year and was dealing with knee injuries. Injuries weren’t really the only thing holding him back.

Having half of his teammates on the line leave sure didn’t help. When healthy last year, which was scarce to begin with, he was the prime focal point of an offense’s preparation. He was misused at times too- being put down on the line instead of standing up as an inside rusher. Indications are that’ll change this year.

“It’s fun,” Allen said while talking about his offseason preparation. “Especially when you’re working hard, man I never pushed myself like I pushed myself so hard this offseason training with Coach Jason Smith and I just feel so great. I feel like I’m durable.”

All the talk and positive reinforcements are beneficial in some way of course.

He also shouldn’t even be close to his prime as a player, nor should the rookie season be shunned off as an aberration. Allen still has massive strides to make as a player before being considered amongst the elite edge rushers in the game. Coming into the year healthy and hungry, part of Allen’s next step to stardom is learning how to deal with being the target for the opposing team’s scouting reports in the upcoming week. Teams will focus on him. There isn’t all that much proven talent on the Jacksonville line besides Allen. The hope is that Joe Cullen’s defensive scheme in his first season as the Jaguars’ defensive coordinator will help set up some favorable matchups for the former top-10 pick.

“I’m back to where I can just move around and I can disguise and get back to the swag,” Allen said. “I feel like defense is all about swag. And I feel like when you’re moving around [the offense] don’t know what that person is going to do, that’s always good.”

Football is here folks, we’ve made it.

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